




Glass X 



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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/storyofmarcopoloOOpolo 



LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



THE KHANS FLEET PASSING THROUGH THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 

Frontispiece 
THE POLO BROTHERS RECEIVING THE TABLET OF GOLD Facing page 8 
MARCO POLO'S GALLEY . . . . . . . „ „ 1 8 

THE THREE KINGS AT THE WELL „ „ 42 

THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN „ „ 56 

THE MIRACULOUS COLUMN „ „ *]0 

TATARS ON THE MA.^CH W ff 9° 

CHINESE PHEASANT » » 9^ 

THE GREAT WALL AND THE RAMPART OF GOG AND MAGOG „ ,, 98 

A PAVILION OF THE SUMMER PALACt • • i • ,1 1, I06 

A CHINESE CONJURER . . . . . . -mm I08 

THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KHAN . . . V"\J» »» I2 ^ 

THE WEST GATE OF PEKING ) V \ 13° 

THE EAGLE AND ITS VICTIM \i» » V - I ^° 

PART OF THE KHAN'S ENCAMPMENT . . . . \ f ,,144 

CATAPULTS, MANGONELS, AND OTHER MACHINES . . A ,, I98 

AN ISLAND MONASTERY »»\ 11 202 

GOLDEN ISLAND , „ 204 

SILVER ISLAND „ „ 210 

THE THREE ASIATIC RHINOCEROSES : INDIAN (UPPER), 

SUMATRAN (LOWER), JAVANESE (MIDDLE) . . „ „ 220 

THE ROC „ „ 234 

xiii 



t 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. 

THE EMPEROR OF CHINA On page 3 

THE CASTLE OF THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS . . „ „ 40 

OVIS POLI „ „ 6§ 

THE GREAT NACCARAS .,,,,119 

EAST AFRICAN SHEEP . 11 if 2 3 2 



/ 



PREFACE 



' I ^HE story of Marco Polo and his companions is 
■*■ one of the most romantic and interesting of 
mediaeval or of modern times. The manner of the 
return of the Polos long after they had been given up 
for dead, the subsequent adventures of Marco Polo, 
the incredulity with which his book of travels was 
received, the gradual and slow confirmation of the 
truth of his reports as later explorations penetrated 
the mysterious Orient, and the fact that he may be 
justly regarded as the founder of the geography of 
Asia, have all combined to give to his narrative a 
certain fascination, with which no other story of 
travel has been invested. At first read for pure 
amusement, Marco Polo's book eventually became an 
authoritative account of regions of the earth which 
were almost wholly unknown to Europe up to his 
time, and some portions of which even now remain 
unexplored by Western travellers. 



vi PREFACE. 

In this little book the author and compiler has 
endeavoured to give a connected account of the travels 
of Marco Polo for the entertainment and instruction 
of young readers, with the hope that maturer minds 
may find therein a comprehensive and intelligible 
summary of the most valuable and trustworthy parts 
of the said book. As far as possible he has allowed 
the traveller to speak for himself, refraining from that 
fashion of condensation, which suppresses the original 
author and gives the reader only a narration which 
has been coloured by its passage through the mind 
of an editor. In his comments on the text of Marco 
Polo, the author has made use of the erudite notes of 
Colonel Henry Yule, C.B., whose admirable trans- 
lation of " The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the 
Venetian" (John Murray, London, 1871) has been 
made the basis of this volume. The works of the 
Abbe Hue, Williams's "The Middle Kingdom," 
Gilmour's " Among the Mongols," and other less- 
known books have been consulted in quest of light 
and information for the better understanding of the 
great Venetian's pages. 

NOAH BROOKS. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 
CONCERNING MARCO, HIS FATHER, AND HIS UNCLE — MISTY 
NOTIONS OF THE FAR EAST HELD BY MEN OF MEDIEVAL 
TIMES — HOW THE POLOS WENT TO THE DOMINIONS OF 
KUBLAI KHAN AND GOT BACK AGAIN— A MARVELLOUS 
JOURNEY I 



CHAPTER II. 

YOUNG MARCO AT THE COURT OF KUBLAI KHAN — THE GREAT 
KHAN'S CONDESCENSION TO THE YOUNG TRAVELLER — 
THE MANNER OF THE RETURN OF THE POLOS — HOW 
MESSER MARCO POLO WAS CAPTURED BY THE GENOESE, 
AND HOW HE WROTE HIS FAMOUS BOOK OF TRAVELS . 12 



CHAPTER III. 

MARCO DISCOURSES OF ANCIENT ARMENIA — THE KINGDOM 
OF GEORGIANIA— THE EXPLOITS OF ALEXANDER THE 
GREAT — STORY OF THE MISERLY CALIPH OF BAGDAD 
AND HIS GOLD — A GREAT MARVEL. . . . .26 

vii 



\ 

viii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE 
THE THREE KINGS — THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN — 

STORIES AND ADVENTURES IN PERSIA — ORIGIN OF THE 

ASSASSINS 39 



CHAPTER V. 

THE GEMS OF BADAKSHAN — A ROYAL PREROGATIVE — THE 

CONJURERS OF CASHMERE 60 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE ROOF OF THE WORLD — HOW THE PAMIR COUNTRY 
BORDERS ON THREE GREAT EMPIRES — THE GREAT 
HORNED SHEEP OF THE STEPPES — A MARVELLOUS STORY 
OF SAMARCAND 66 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE SEA OF SAND AND ITS MARVELS — THE FABLED SALA- 
MANDER AND ITS TRUE STORY — SOMETHING ABOUT AS- 
BESTOS 73 

CHAPTER VIII. 

HOWJENGHIZ KHAN DEFEATED PRESTER JOHN — THE MYTHI- 
CAL CHRISTIAN KING AND THE MONGOL CONQUEROR — 
DIVINERS AND THEIR TRICKS — TATAR MIGRATIONS . 80 



CHAPTER IX. 

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF A STRANGE PEOPLE — CONCERNING 
THE TATARS AND THEIR WAYS— THE ORIGIN OF CON- 
DENSED MILK 86 



CONTENTS. ix 



CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 
TIBET — THE "GRUNTING OXEN " OF THAT REGION — MUSK- 
DEER AND OTHER ANIMALS 94 



CHAPTER XI. 

WHO WERE GOG AND MAGOG? — THE SPLENDOURS OF THE 
COURT OF KUBLAI KHAN — COLERIDGE'S POEM "IN XA- 
NADU" ........ .98 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE TRICKS OF CHINESE CONJURERS — FLYING CUPS AND 

AIR-CLIMBERS I07 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HOW THE GREAT EMPEROR WENT TO WAR— KUBLAI KHAN'S 
VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST A KINSMAN — HOW THE 
KHAN REWARDED THE VALOUR OF HIS CAPTAINS . .Ill 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BEAUTIFUL PALACE OF KUBLAI KHAN — HOW THE EM- 
PEROR SPENT HIS TIME — CONCERNING THE MIGHTY 
CITY OF CAMBALUC — THE MANNER OF SERVING DINNER 
IN THE GREAT KHAN'S PALACE— ANCIENT AND MODERN 
PEKING — COSTLY ROBES 1 24 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PAGE 
THE KHAN AS A MIGHTY HUNTER — HIS FALCONERS, HAWKS, 
AND HUNTING GEAR — RIDING IN A CHAMBER ON ELE- 
PHANTS' BACKS — RIGHT ROYAL SPORT . . . -139 

CHAPTER XVI. 

KUBLAl'S FINANCES AND GOVERNMENT — THE GREAT KHAN 
AS A MONEY-SPINNER — PRINTING MONEY TO ORDER — 
THE EMPEROR'S VALUABLE MONOPOLIES — THE TWELVE 
BARONS AND THEIR POWERS — POST-RUNNERS WHO 
TRAVEL FAST — BURNING "BLACK STONES " FOR FUEL — 
THE KHAN'S PATRIARCHAL RULE 147 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE GOLDEN KING AND PRESTER JOHN — THE FAMED YEL- 
LOW RIVER — SOME OF THE WONDERS OF YUNNAN — THE 
TRAVELLER MEETS WITH CROCODILES — "THE PEOPLE 

OF THE GOLD TEETH " — CURIOSITIES OF TATTOOING 

A FAMOUS BATTLE — THE CITY OF MIEN . . . 1 63 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

IN SOUTHERN CHINA AND LAOS — CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF A 
STRANGE PEOPLE — LIONS AND LION-HUNTING DOGS- 
MARVELLOUS PRODUCTS OF SILK — THE REBELLION AND 
PUNISHMENT OF LIYTAN 1 85 

CHAPTER XIX. 

BAYAN HUNDRED-EYES — THE POLO BROTHERS INTRODUCE 
WESTERN SIEGE ARTILLERY — THE YANG-TSE-KIANG AND 
ITS MONASTERIES — KINSAY (THE CITY OF HEAVEN) 
DESCRIBED I96 



CONTENTS. XI 



CHAPTER XX. 

PAGE 
AN EXCURSION TO CIPANGO, OR JAPAN — INGENIOUS SHIPS 
BUILT BY THE CHINESE — THE KHAN FAILS TO CONQUER 
JAPAN — THE RHINOCEROS — HISTORY OF SAGAMONI BOR- 
CAN, OR BUDDHA — RELIQUES OF ADAM. . . .211 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE WONDERS OF INDIA — PEARL-FISHERS AND THEIR PERILS 
— A STORY LIKE ONE IN "THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' EN- 
TERTAINMENTS" — HUNTING DIAMONDS WITH EAGLES . 226 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A PEEP INTO AFRICA — THE MYTHICAL ROC AND ITS MIGHTY 
EGGS — THE EXPLOITS OF KING CAIDU'S DAUGHTER — 
CONCLUSION 231 



THE 

STORY OF MARCO POLO. 



CHAPTER I. 

CONCERNING MARCO, HIS FATHER, AND HIS UNCLE — MISTY 
NOTIONS OF THE FAR EAST HELD BY MEN OF MEDIAEVAL 
TIMES — HOW THE POLOS WENT TO THE DOMINIONS OF 
KUBLAI KHAN AND GOT BACK AGAIN — A MARVELLOUS 
JOURNEY. 

MANY hundred years ago, in the year 1295, let 
us say, before Columbus discovered America, 
or the art of printing had been invented, a strange 
thing happened in Venice. Three men, dressed 
in outlandish garb, partly European and partly 
Asiatic, appeared in the streets of that city, making 
their way to the gates of a lofty and handsome house 
which was then occupied by members of the ancient 
family of Polo. The three strangers, whose speech 
had a foreign accent, claimed admittance to the 
mansion, saying that they were Maffeo and Nicolo 

1 



2 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

Polo, brothers, and Marco, son of Nicolo, all of whom 
had been absent in the wild and barbarous countries 
of the Far East for more than twenty-four years, and 
had long since been given up as lost. 

In those days nobody in Europe knew much about 
the regions in which the three Polos had travelled, 
the little that was known being derived from 
scanty and vague reports. Two friars, Piano Carpini 
and William Rubruquis, it is true, had reached the 
borders of Cathay, or Northern China, and had 
brought back slender accounts of the wonders of that 
mysterious land, of which they had heard from the 
subjects of the Great Khan, who reigned over a vast 
empire. But nobody among the learned and most 
travelled people of Europe knew exactly what manner 
of people lived, or what countries lay, beyond the 
western boundary of Cathay. None knew aught of 
the inhabitants (or if there were inhabitants) of the 
regions that we now know as India, Sumatra, Japan, 
Corea, and the eastern coasts of Asia and Africa. 
It was supposed that the farthest extreme, or eastern 
edge, of Cathay ran off into a region of continual 
darkness, a bog or marsh where all manner of strange 
beasts, hobgoblins, and monsters roamed and howled. 
And it was not surprising that, when the three Polos 
(for these were they) came back from that desperately 
savage country and claimed their own, they were 
laughed to scorn. It seemed reasonable to believe 



I.] 



RETURN OF THE WANDERERS. 



that the three, having been gone so many years, had 
wandered off into the Sea of Darkness and had 
perished miserably, or had been destroyed by the 
wild creatures of that terrible region. 

How the three Polos so far convinced their rela- 
tions, who were in possession of the Polo mansion 




Oic Emperor of Omt 



in Venice, as to gain admittance, we do not know ; 
but John Baptist Ramusio, who has written an 
entertaining history of the Polo family, sets forth 
what was done by the three Polos to prove that 
they were what they claimed to be, after they had 
taken possession of their house. They explained 
that they had been in the service of the Great 
Khan, or Emperor, of the Mongol Empire, and 



4 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

that they had amassed wealth while in the region 
variously known as Cathay, China, Mongolia, and the 
Far East. Here is what the good John Baptist 
Ramusio has to tell of the device by which Maffeo, 
Nicolo, and young Marco Polo finally convinced 
their neighbours of the truth of their marvellous 
story : 

They invited a number of their kindred to an entertain- 
ment, which they took care to have prepared with great 
state and splendour in that house of theirs ; and when the 
hour arrived for sitting down to table, they came forth of 
their chamber, all three clothed in crimson satin, fashioned 
in long robes reaching to the ground, such as people in 
those days wore within doors. And when water for the 
hands had been served, and the guests were set, they took 
off those robes and put on others of crimson damask, whilst 
the first suits were by their orders cut up and divided among 
the servants. Then after partaking of some of the dishes, 
they went out again and came back in robes of crimson 
velvet; and when they had again taken their seats, the 
second suits were divided as before. When dinner was 
over, they did the like with the robes of velvet, after they 
had put on dresses of the ordinary fashion worn by the 
rest of the company. These proceedings caused much 
wonder and amazement among the guests. But when the 
cloth had been drawn, and all the servants had been 
ordered to retire from the dining-hall, Messer Marco, as 
the youngest of the three, rose from table, and, going into 
another chamber, brought forth the three shabby dresses 
of coarse stuff which they had worn when they first arrived. 
Straightway they took sharp knives and began to rip up 
some of the seams and welts, and to take out of them 



I.] ALL DOUBTS REMOVED. 5 

jewels of the greatest value in vast quantities, such as 
rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds, 
which had all been stitched up in those dresses in so artful 
a fashion that nobody could have suspected the fact. For 
when they took leave of the Great Can, they had changed 
all the wealth that he had bestowed upon them into this 
mass of rubies, emeralds, and other jewels, being well aware 
of the impossibility of carrying with them so great an 
amount of gold over a journey of such extreme length and 
difficulty. Now this exhibition of such a huge treasure of 
jewels and precious stones, all tumbled out upon the table, 
threw the guests into fresh amazement, insomuch that they 
seemed quite bewildered and dumbfounded. And now 
they recognised that in spite of all former doubts these 
were in truth those honoured and worthy gentlemen of 
the Ca' Polo * that they claimed to be ; and so all paid 
them the greatest honour and reverence. And when the 
story got wind in Venice, straightway the whole city, gentle 
and simple, flocked to the house to embrace them, and 
to make much of them, with every conceivable demonstra- 
tion of affection and respect. On Messer Maffeo, who was 
the eldest, they conferred the honours of an office that 
was of great dignity in those days ; whilst the young men 
came daily to visit and converse with the ever polite and 
gracious Messer Marco, and to ask him questions about 
Cathay and the Great Can, all of which he answered 
with such kindly courtesy that every man felt himself in a 
manner his debtor. And as it happened that in the story, 
which he was constantly called on to repeat, of the mag- 
nificence of the Great Can, he would speak of his revenues 
as amounting to ten or fifteen millions of gold, and in 
like manner, when recounting other instances of great 
wealth in those parts, would always make use of the term 

* House oi Polo. 



6 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

millions ', so they gave him the nickname of Messer Marco 
Millioni : a thing which I have noted also in the Public 
Books of this Republic where mention is made of him. 
The Court of his House, too, at S. Giovanni Chrisostomo, 
has always from that time been popularly known as the 
Court of the Millioni. 

It is with the youngest of the three Polos that 
our story has to do ; for Marco, the son of Nicolo, 
was the author of the book that bears his name ; 
and he was the most famous traveller of his time, 
as we shall presently see. He was seventeen 
years old when he first started on his adventurous 
journey into Far Cathay. He was forty-one years 
old when he returned to his native city of Venice, 
with his father and his uncle Maffeo ; and it was 
not until three or four years later, while he was a 
prisoner of war, that he began to write, or dictate, 
the tale of his wonderful travels. 

The two Polo brothers, Nicolo and MafYeo, began 
their wanderings in the Far East before Marco was 
born. After several years of trading and travelling 
in that region of the world, which was called the 
Levant, because the sun was seen to rise there (from 
the French verb lever, to rise), the two Polos were 
in Constantinople in 1260. From that city they 
went on a trading venture round the northern shore 
of the Black Sea to the Crimea and the Sea of Azov, 
and thence into Western Asia and to Bokhara, where 



I.] THE MONGOLS. 7 

they remained three years. While there, they heard 
distinct and trustworthy tales of the Great Khan, 
as he was called — the Emperor of the Mongols — 
and they resolved to go and see the splendours of 
his court. 

At that time the Mongolian Empire was one of 
the largest, if not the largest, in the world. The 
Mongols, beginning their wandering life in the 
northern part of Asia, had overrun all the western 
part of that continent, and as far to the southward 
as the island of Sumatra, excepting India. To the 
eastward, the islands of Cipango, or Japan, alone 
resisted the dominion of the Great Khan ; and in 
the west, his hordes had even broken over the borders 
of Europe, had taken possession of the country 
now known as Russia, had invaded Poland and 
Hungary, and had established themselves on the 
mouths of the Danube. During the reign of the 
great Jenghiz Khan and his immediate successors, 
it has been said, "In Asia and Eastern Europe 
scarcely a dog might bark without Mongol leave, 
from the borders of Poland and the coast of Cilicia 
to the Amur and the Yellow Sea." 

When the two Polos arrived at the chief city of 
the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan, a grandson of 
the great Jenghiz, was the reigning Sovereign. The 
Khan had never seen any Europeans, and he was 
greatly pleased with the appearance of the Polo 



8 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

brothers. This is what Marco Polo says of the 
reception of his father and uncle by Kublai Khan : 

When the Two Brothers got to the Great Kaan, he 
received them with great honour and hospitality, and 
showed much pleasure at their visit, asking them a great 
number of questions. First, he asked about the emperors, 
how they maintained their dignity and administered justice 
in their dominions, and how they went forth to battle, 
and so forth. And then he asked the like questions about 
the kings and princes and other potentates. 

And then he inquired about the Pope and the Church, 
and about all that is done at Rome, and all the customs 
of the Latins. And the Two Brothers told him the truth 
in all its particulars, with order and good sense, like 
sensible men as they were; and this they were able to 
do, as they knew the Tartar language well. 

When that Prince, whose name was Cublay Kaan, 
Lord of the Tartars all over the earth, and of all the 
kingdoms and provinces and territories of that vast quarter 
of the world, had heard all that the Brothers had to tell 
him about the ways of the Latins, he was greatly pleased, 
and he took it into his head that he would send them on 
an Embassy to the Pope. So he urgently desired them 
to undertake this mission along with one of his Barons ; 
and they replied that they would gladly execute all his 
commands as those of their Sovereign Lord. Then the 
Prince sent to summon to his presence one of his Barons 
whose name was Cogatal, and desired him to get ready, 
for it was proposed to send him to the Pope along with 
the Two Brothers. The Baron replied that he would 
execute the Lord's commands to the best of his ability. 

After this the Prince caused letters from himself to the 
Pope to be indited in the Tartar tongue, and committed 
them to the Two Brothers and to that Baron of his own, 




THE POLO BROTHERS RECEIVING THE TABLET OF GOLD. 



I.] THE KHAN'S INSTRUCTIONS. 9 

and charged them with what he wished them to say to 
the Pope. Now the contents of the letter were to this 
purport : He begged that the Pope would send as many 
as an hundred persons of our Christian faith ; intelligent 
men, acquainted with the Seven Arts, well qualified to 
enter into controversy, and able clearly to prove by force 
of argument to idolaters and other kinds of folk, that the 
Law of Christ was best, and that all other religions were 
false and naught; and if they would prove this, he and 
all under him would become Christians and the Church's 
liegemen. Finally he charged his Envoys to bring back 
to him some Oil of the Lamp which burns on the Sepulchre 
of our Lord at Jerusalem. 

When the Prince had charged them with all his com- 
mission, he caused to be given them a Tablet of Gold, 
on which was inscribed that the three Ambassadors should 
be supplied with everything needful in all countries through 
which they should pass — with horses, with escorts, and, in 
short, with whatever they should require. And when they 
had made all needful preparations, the three Ambassadors 
took their leave of the Emperor and set out. 

So great was the reverence in which the Great 
Khan was held by all who frequented his court 
that he was called the Lord, or the Lord of the 
Earth. Ramusio spells the title variously, sometimes 
" Kaan," and sometimes " Can." He also calls him 
" Cublay " at times, but most scholars give the 
name as Kublai. The Seven Arts which the Great 
Khan wanted to have brought to his court by 
teachers were : Rhetoric, Logic, Grammar, Arith- 
metic, Astronomy, Music and Geometry. These 



10 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

were then regarded as the sum of human knowledge ; 
and if the people of the Great Khan were taught 
these, they would know all that the Europeans knew. 
Everything went well with the travellers, except that 
the Tatar baron fell sick, and had to be left behind. 
They reached Acre in 1269, where, finding to their 
dismay that the Pope was dead, and that his successor 
had not been chosen, they went, says Marco Polo, 

to a certain wise Churchman who was Legate for the 
whole kingdom of Egypt, and a man of great authority, by 
name Theobald of Piacenza, and told him of the mission 
on which they were come. When the Legate heard their 
story, he was greatly surprised, and deemed the thing to 
be of great honour and advantage for the whole of 
Christendom. So his answer to the Two Ambassador 
Brothers was this : " Gentlemen, ye see that the Pope is 
dead ; wherefore ye must needs have patience until a new 
Pope be made, and then shall ye be able to execute your 
charge." Seeing well enough that what the Legate said 
was just, they observed : " But while the Pope is a-making, 
we may as well go to Venice and visit our households." 
So they departed from Acre and went to Negropont, and 
from Negropont they continued their voyage to Venice. 
On their arrival there, Messer Nicolas found that his wife 
was dead, and that she had left behind her a son of fifteen 
years of age, whose name was Marco ; and 'tis of him this 
Book tells. The Two Brothers abode at Venice a couple 
of years, tarrying until a Pope should be made. 

When the Two Brothers had tarried as long as I have 
told you, and saw that never a Pope was made, they said 
that their return to the Great Kaan must be put off no 
longer. So they set out from Venice, taking Marco along 



I.] POPE GREGORY X. II 

with them, and went straight back to Acre, where they 
found the Legate of whom we have spoken. They had 
a good deal of discourse with him concerning the matter, 
and asked his permission to go to Jerusalem to get some 
Oil from the Lamp on the Sepulchre, to carry with them 
to the Great Kaan, as he had enjoined. The Legate 
giving them leave, they went from Acre to Jerusalem and 
got some of the Oil, and then returned to Acre, and went 
to the Legate and said to him : " As we see no sign of 
a Pope's being made, we desire to return to the Great 
Kaan ; for we have already tarried long, and there has been 
more than enough delay." To which the Legate replied : 
"Since 'tis your wish to go back, I am well content." 
Wherefore he caused letters to be written for delivery to 
the Great Kaan, bearing testimony that the Two Brothers 
had come in all good faith to accomplish his charge, but 
that as there was no Pope they had been unable to do so. 

Armed with these, the Polos started on their 
return ; but they had not gone far when they were 
overjoyed to learn that their good friend, Archdeacon 
Tebaldo, had been chosen Pope. The news was sent 
after them, and they went back to Acre, where 
Tebaldo, afterwards known as Pope Gregory X., 
received them graciously ; but he could supply them 
with only two priestly teachers, and these afterwards 
became so alarmed by the dangers of the way that 
they drew back. It is related that the Great Khan, 
in consequence of this failure to supply him with 
Christian teachers, resorted to Tibet, where he found 
holy men who brought for his unruly subjects in- 
struction in the religion of Buddha. 



CHAPTER II. 

YOUNG MARCO AT THE COURT OF KUBLAI KHAN — THE GREAT 
KHAN'S CONDESCENSION TO THE YOUNG TRAVELLER — THE 
MANNER OF THE RETURN OF THE POLOS — HOW MESSER 
MARCO POLO WAS CAPTURED BY THE GENOESE, AND HOW HE 
WROTE HIS FAMOUS BOOK OF TRAVELS. 

TV /f ARCO and his father and uncle were very 
-L¥J» cordially received when they reached the 
court of the Great Khan, which was then established 
at the imperial summer residence among the hills to 
the north of Cambaluc, or Peking. The palace was 
a vast group of buildings, and was known as the City 
of Peace, or Chandu : its other names were Kemenfu, 
Kaiminfu, and Kaipingfu. Here is young Marco's 
own account of the reception which the three 
Venetians had in the City of Peace: 

And what shall I tell you? When the Two Brothers 
and Mark had arrived at that great city, they went to the 
Imperial Palace, and there they found the Sovereign 
attended by a great company of Barons. So they bent 
the knee before him, and paid their respects to him with 
all possible reverence, prostrating themselves on the ground. 
Then the Lord bade them stand up, and treated them 

12 



Ch. II. J MARCO, THE LINGUIST. 1 3 

with great honour, showing great pleasure at their coming, 
and asked many questions as to their welfare and how they 
had sped. They replied that they had in verity sped well, 
seeing they had found the Kaan well and safe. Then they 
presented the credentials and letters which they had received 
from the Pope, which pleased him right well ; and after 
that they produced the Oil from the Sepulchre, and at 
that also he was very glad, for he set great store thereby. 
And next, spying Mark, who was then a young gallant, 
he asked who was that in their company ? " Sire," said 
his father, Messer Nicolo, " 'tis my son and your liegeman." 
"Welcome is he too," quoth the Emperor. There was 
great rejoicing at the Court because of their arrival ; and 
they met with attention and honour from everybody. So 
they abode at the Court with the other Barons. 

Now it came to pass that Marco, the son of Messer 
Nicolo, sped wondrously in learning the customs of the 
Tartars as well as their language, their manner of writing, 
and their practice of war ; in fact, he came in brief space 
to know several languages and four sundry written characters. 
And he was discreet and prudent in every way, insomuch 
that the Emperor held him in great esteem. And so when 
he discerned Mark to have so much sense, and to conduct 
himself so well and beseemingly, he sent him on an 
ambassage of his, to a country which was a good six months' 
journey distant. The young gallant executed his com- 
mission well and with discretion. Now he had taken note 
on several occasions that when the Prince's ambassadors 
returned from different parts of the world they were able 
to tell him about nothing except the business on which they 
had gone, and that the Prince in consequence held them 
for no better than fools and dolts, and would say, " I had 
far liever hearken about the strange things, and the manners 
of the different countries you have seen, than merely be 
told of the business you went upon " ; for he took great 



14 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

delight in hearing of the affairs of strange countries. Mark, 
therefore, as he went and returned, took great pains to 
learn about all kinds of different matters in the countries 
which he visited, in order to be able to tell about them 
to the Great Kaan. 

When Mark returned from his ambassage, he presented 
himself before the Emperor; and after making his report 
of the business with which he was charged, and its suc- 
cessful accomplishment, he went on to give an account, 
in a pleasant and intelligent manner, of all the novelties 
and strange things that he had seen and heard ; insomuch 
that the Emperor and all such as heard his story were 
surprised, and said : " If this young man live, he will 
assuredly come to be a person of great worth and ability." 
And so from that time forward he was always entitled 
Messer Marco Polo, and thus we shall style him hence- 
forth in this Book of ours, as is but right. 

Thereafter Messer Marco abode in the Kaan's employ- 
ment some seventeen years, continually going and coming, 
hither and thither, on the missions that were entrusted 
to him by the Lord, and sometimes, with the permission 
and authority of the Great Kaan, on his own private affairs. 
And as he knew all the Sovereign's ways, like a sensible 
man he always took much pains to gather knowledge of 
anything that would be likely to interest him, and then 
on his return to Court he would relate everything in regular 
order, and thus the Emperor came to hold him in great 
love and favour. And for this reason also he would employ 
him the oftener on the most weighty and most distant of 
his missions. These Messer Marco ever carried out with 
discretion and success, God be thanked. So the Emperor 
became ever more partial to him, and treated him with 
the greater distinction, and kept him so close to his person 
that some of the Barons waxed very envious thereat. 
And thus it came about that Messer Marco Polo had 



II.] MARCO, THE EXPLORER. 1 5 

knowledge of, or had actually visited, a greater number of 
the different countries of the World than any other man ; 
the more that he was always giving his mind to get 
knowledge, and to spy out and inquire into everything, in 
order to have matter to relate to the Lord. 

It is pleasant to think of this bright young stranger 
in the court of Kublai Khan, winning friends for 
himself by his zeal in acquiring knowledge of the 
peoples and countries subject to the sway of the 
Khan. By his intelligence and agreeable manners 
he was able to command the means to explore 
countries which, even to this day, are very imperfectly 
understood by the rest of the world. Within the 
memory of men now living, European travellers 
have explored, for the first time since Marco Polo's 
visits, the Pamir steppes, other portions of Mongolia, 
Tibet, and some of the south-western provinces of 
China. 

He was the first traveller to trace a route across 
the whole length of Asia, says one of his biographers, 
" describing kingdon after kingdom that he had seen 
with his own eyes." He was the first traveller to 
explore the deserts and the flowering plains of 
Persia, to reveal China with its mighty rivers, its 
swarming population, and its huge cities and rich 
manufactures ; the first to visit and bring back 
accounts of Tibet, Laos, Burmah, Siam, Cochin China, 
Japan, the Indian Archipelago, Ceylon, Farther India, 



1 6 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

and the Andaman Islands ; the first to give any dis- 
tinct account of the secluded Christian empire of 
Abyssinia ; the first to speak even vaguely of 
Zanzibar, Madagascar, and other regions in the 
mysterious South, and of Siberia and the Arctic 
Ocean in the terrible and much dreaded North. 
Although centuries have passed since young Marco 
Polo grew to man's estate while threading his danger- 
ous way among these distant lands, we must still 
look back to his discoveries for much that we know 
about those countries ; for we have learned nothing 
new of many of them since his time. 

Years passed while the three Polos were gathering 
riches and knowledge in Cathay ; the Great Khan 
was growing old and infirm, and the father and the 
uncle of Marco were now well stricken in years. It 
was time that they took back to Venice their gold, 
precious stones, and costly stuffs. But the old 
Emperor growled a refusal whenever they suggested 
that they would like to leave his court. A lucky 
chance gave them an opportunity of getting away. 

The Khan of Persia, Arghun, who was a great- 
nephew of Kublai Khan, had lost his favourite wife, 
and, fulfilling her dying request, he now sent to the 
Mongol court for a lady of her own kin. The Lady 
Kukachin, a lovely damsel of seventeen years, was 
selected to be the bride of the Persian Khan, and 
three envoys of the widowed ruler were told to take 



II.] A MISSION TO PERSIA. 1 7 

her to him. But the way from Cathay to Persia 
was very hazardous, owing to the wars which then 
prevailed ; and it was thought best for the party to 
take ship from one of the ports of China to Ormus, 
on the Persian Gulf. The Tatars are not good 
sailors ; and the Persian envoys, who could not get 
much help or comfort from their friends in the court 
of Kublai Khan when they planned their voyage, 
naturally bethought them of engaging the services of 
the three hardy and venturous Venetians, who were 
voyagers, as well as land travellers. 

The Great Khan was most unwilling to part with 
his favourite and useful Venetians ; but having con- 
sented to let them go, he fitted out a noble fleet of 
ships ; and giving them friendly messages to many 
of the kings and potentates of Europe, including the 
king of England, he sped them on their way. They 
sailed from Zayton, now called Tsinchau, a seaport 
of Fuhkien, on the south-east coast of China, but were 
so detained by storms and the illness of some of the 
suite that it was twenty-six months before they 
arrived at their destination. Two of the three 
envoys died on the way ; and when the three 
Venetians and the lady who had been confided to 
their care reached the court of Persia, they found 
that the Persian Khan was dead, and another, 
Kaikhatu, reigned in his stead. In that country and 
in those days, the wishes of a lady were not much 

2 



1 8 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

considered in the matter of marriage, and the son of 
the reigning Khan, Ghazan, married the young lady 
who had journeyed so far to find a husband. It is 
recorded that the young lady wept sadly when she 
parted with the kindly and noble Venetians ; and so 
they took their way homeward, and arrived in Venice, 
as we have said, in the year 1295 — more than six 
hundred years ago. 

At that time Venice and Genoa were rival republics, 
not merely Italian cities. Each was an independent 
state, and held rich possessions in the Levant, the 
Crimea, and around the Mediterranean. They were 
almost continually at war with each other and with 
the republic of Pisa. It was expected and required 
of all rich and noble citizens of these republics, that 
they should furnish a certain number of fighters and 
war vessels whenever a war was brought on ; and as 
most of the fighting was done on the sea, the great 
crafts, propelled by oars and called galleys, were 
brought into service. In one of these wars the Polo 
family took part, for they were rich and noble ; and 
Marco Polo, now a man of mature years, was com- 
mander of a great and powerful galley. He had the 
misfortune to be captured in a battle with the Genoese 
fleet, off the island of Curzola, on the Dalmatian 
coast, in September, 1298. 

After that great defeat, Marco Polo was carried a 
prisoner to Genoa, where he was held until some time 



II.] MARCO'S AMANUENSIS. 19 

during the following year, probably in August, when, 
a treaty of peace between the two warring republics 
having been signed, he was restored to his own 
country. If Marco Polo had not been captured at the 
battle of Curzola, or in some other of the many sea- 
fights between the two republics, we probably never 
would have had his famous book to enlighten us 
concerning the lands he saw and described. 

And this is how it happened. We have already 
seen that it was Marco's sensible custom to tell his 
adventures to those who came to ask him about his 
travels in the heart of Asia ; and when he found 
himself shut up in the prison of Genoa, he speedily 
made the acquaintance of his fellow-prisoner, one 
Rusticiano of Pisa, who was also a captive of war. 
Luckily for us, Rusticiano was a writer of some repute ; 
and hearing from Marco's lips many tales of mar- 
vellous adventure, he besought the traveller to set 
these down in writing. But noblemen, and indeed 
gentlemen of high degree, in those days did not 
think well of writing ; it was no disgrace to be unable 
to write anything more than one's name ; and the 
high and mighty of the land looked down with con- 
tempt upon " scriveners and scribes," as writers were 
called. The world has gotten bravely over that 
notion. 

Howbeit, Marco agreed to dictate his story to 
Rusticiano, having recourse to his own memory, and 



20 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

perhaps to the note-books which he must have written 
when he was in the service of the Great Khan, and 
which may have been sent to him while he was in 
the Genoese prison. It is to the book written by 
Rusticiano, as the words fell from the lips of Marco 
Polo, that we are indebted for the valuable informa- 
tion and the entertaining knowledge of the East 
which is now spread over many books. And it is 
because it was dictated, or recited, and not written by 
Marco's own hand, that we find that in it Marco is 
always spoken of in the third person ; he never says 
" I did this and that," but always " Messer Marco 
Polo " ; or he uses some such modest terms. 

As the art of printing had not then been invented, 
Rusticiano was obliged to write on parchment the 
story of Marco Polo ; and for many years afterwards, 
copies of that book were very precious, for every one 
of them had to be written out with infinite labour, 
and some of them were illustrated with drawings and 
paintings of the wonders described in the book. The 
oldest and most valuable of these manuscript books 
in existence is in the Great Paris Library ; and, as it 
was undoubtedly written during the lifetime of Marco 
Polo, and may have be&n revised by him, it is 
regarded as the most authentic, as it is the oldest, of 
all the manuscript copies of Marco Polo's book. It 
may be the original book. There are, all told, more 
than seventy-five manuscript copies of Marco's book 



fr 



II.] A FAMOUS BOOK. 21 

in various parts of Europe, and written in various 
languages. The original work was written in French, 
then one of the commonest languages of the com- 
mercial world. The first printed edition of the book 
was in German, and was produced in Nuremberg in 
1477. There have been several editions printed in 
English, the most famous and best of which, " Travels 
of Marco Polo," was translated and edited by Colonel 
Henry Yule, an English officer and scholar of renown. 
It is from his book that we derive all the information 
collected for the readers of these chapters. 

The strange knowledge of the world which the book 
of Marco Polo contained, confirmed, among other 
things, the tales brought from the East by the Friars 
Piano Carpini and William Rubruquis in 1246 and 
1253 respectively. People now learned that the 
eastern part of Asia did not run off into an impene- 
trable swamp covered with clouds of perpetual 
darkness ; for the three Venetians had sailed from 
the south-eastern coast of Cathay, or China, round 
to the Persian Gulf. Scholars and travellers were a 
long time, however, trying to digest the vast amount 
of geographical knowledge brought back by the Polos. 
They learned that there was an ocean east of Asia, 
as well as an ocean west of Spain and England. Why 
didn't they begin to think of crossing westward from 
Spain to the Cathay of which such exact accounts 
had been brought by Marco Polo ? 



22 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

As written books were all that readers had, and 
these works were few and costly, the book of Messer 
Marco Polo did not have a wide circulation. As we 
have seen, people travelled very slowly in those days, 
and news and information of all kinds also spread 
with even greater slowness. When Christopher 
Columbus, who lived in the very city where Marco 
Polo had been imprisoned, and in which his book was 
written, began to pick up information about the world, 
some two hundred years later, he must have come 
across some of the tales told by Marco. But there is 
no certainty that he ever saw a copy of Polo's book. 
Columbus derived from other sources, or at second- 
hand from Polo, the facts which confirmed him in 
his belief that the sea between Europe and Cathay — 
the Ocean Sea — was very narrow, and that the round 
world was not so big as most people supposed. 

But when Columbus finally set forth on his voyage 
into " the Sea of Darkness," bound for India and an 
unknown land, he carried with him letters written to 
the Great Khan by the sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand 
and Isabella. When he lighted upon what we now 
know as the islands of the American Continent, he 
supposed that he had touched the dominions of the 
Great Khan ; and he was continually on the look-out 
for the land of Cipango, spoken of by Marco Polo, 
where there were such riches of gold and gems and 
fabulously gorgeous commodities. 



II.] MARCO, THE TRUTH-TELLER. 23 

In his lifetime, and indeed long after, Marco Polo 
was regarded as an inventor of idle tales. Even 
within fifty years, thoughtless and ignorant writers 
have alluded to him as a great liar ; but time has set 
him right, and recent explorations and rediscoveries 
have proved that he told the truth about things and 
places that he saw. If he sometimes gave currency 
to fables and traditions, he never adopted them as 
his own ; he told his readers what he had heard, and 
then left them to judge whether these things were 
true or not. And some of the wonders that he 
described, and which seemed incredible, are now 
proved to be not so wonderful after all. Now that 
we understand what a volcano is, we can admit 
that those, who never saw or heard of one, would 
be slow to believe a traveller who told of a burn- 
ing mountain that continually sent forth fire and 
smoke from its inside. To this day some of the 
natives of tropical regions refuse to believe that water 
becomes a solid mass in the winter of the North, so 
that men and boys can walk on it, and drag heavy 
weights over it. 

Marco Polo was not a great genius inspired with a 
lofty enthusiasm, as Christopher Columbus was ; but 
he told the truth, and deserves a very high place 
among those who have made notable additions to 
the knowledge of the world. Perhaps he suffered 
some slight from the people who lived during his 



24 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

own time, because they found it hard to believe 
that the world was inhabited by human beings all 
round it ; that there was no sea of perpetual darkness, 
as they had been taught ; and that the people of 
Asia were really ingenious and skilful traders and 
workers, and not savages and cannibals, as they had 
supposed. Perhaps, too, the big, swelling words and 
bombastic style, with which the worthy Rusticiano 
set forth Marco's book, caused some people to regard 
it with contempt and even suspicion. We cannot 
better conclude this chapter than with Rusticiano's 
prologue, or preface, to the book of Marco Polo : 

Great Princes, Emperors, and Kings, Dukes, and 
Marquises, Counts, Knights, and Burgesses ! and People of 
all degrees who desire to get knowledge of the various 
races of mankind and of the diversities of the sundry 
regions of the World, take this Book and cause it to be 
read to you. For ye shall find therein all kinds of wonder- 
ful things, and the divers histories of the great Hermenia, 
and of Persia, and of the Land of the Tartars, and of 
India, and of many another country of which our Book 
doth speak, particularly and in regular succession, according 
to the description of Messer Marco Polo, a wise and noble 
citizen of Venice, as he saw them with his own eyes. 
Some things indeed there be therein which he beheld not ; 
but these he heard from men of credit and veracity. And 
we shall set down things seen as seen, and things heard as 
heard only, so that no jot of falsehood may mar the truth 
of our Book, and that all who shall read it or hear it read 
may put full faith in the truth of all its contents. 

For let me tell you that since our Lord God did mould 



II.] RUSTICIANO'S PROLOGUE. 25 

with his hands our first Father Adam, even until this day, 
never hath there been Christian, or Pagan, or Tartar, or 
Indian, or any man of any nation, who in his own person 
hath had so much knowledge and experience of the divers 
parts of the World and its Wonders as hatb had this 
Messer Marco ! And for that reason he bethought himself 
that it would be a very great pity did he not cause to be 
put in writing all the great marvels that he had seen, or on 
sure information heard of, so that other people who had 
not these advantages might, by his Book, get such know- 
ledge. And I may tell you that in acquiring this knowledge 
he spent in those various parts of the World good 
six-and-twenty years. Now, being thereafter an inmate of 
the Prison of Genoa, he caused Messer Rusticiano of Pisa, 
who was in the said Prison likewise, to reduce the whole to 
writing; and this befell in the year 1298 from the birth of 
Jesus. 



CHAPTER III. 

MARCO DISCOURSES OF ANCIENT ARMENIA — THE KINGDOM OF 
GEORGIANIA — THE EXPLOITS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT — 
STORY OF THE MISERLY CALIPH OF BAGDAD AND HIS GOLD — 
A GREAT MARVEL. 

T N the former chapter we had the preface to Marco 
■*■ Polo's book as it was composed by Rusticiano. 
In reading the first chapter of the book itself, we 
can imagine the prisoner and illustrious traveller 
pacing up and down in his place of confinement, 
and dictating to his companion the words that are 
to be set down. And this is the first chapter of 
the work as dictated by Marco : 

HERE THE BOOK BEGINS; AND FIRST IT SPEAKS OF THE 
LESSER HERMENIA. 

There are two Hermenias, the Greater and the Less. 
The Lesser Hermenia is governed by a certain King, who 
maintains a just rule in his dominions, but is himself 
subject to the Tartar. The country contains numerous 
towns and villages, and has everything in plenty ; moreover, 
it is a great country for sport in the chase of all manner 
of beasts and birds. It is, however, by no means a healthy 

26 



Ch. III.] ARMENIA. 27 

region, but grievously the reverse. In days of old the 
nobles there were valiant men, and did doughty deeds of 
arms ; but nowadays they are poor creatures, and good at 
naught. Howbeit, they have a city upon the sea, which 
is called Layas, at which there is a great trade. For you 
must know that all the spicery, and the cloths of silk and 
gold, and other valuable wares that come from the interior, 
are brought to that city. And the merchants of Venice 
and Genoa, and other countries, come thither to sell their 
goods, and to buy what they lack. And whatsoever persons 
would travel to the interior (of the East), merchants or 
others, they take their way by this city of Layas. 

By " Hermenia " we are to understand that the 
traveller is speaking of the country now known as 
Armenia, a province of Turkey in Asia, lying to 
the westward, embracing the regions of the valley 
of the Euphrates and the mountainous Ararat. The 
subdivisions of the greater and the less Armenia 
are not known and used nowadays. Here is what 
Marco has to say about the other division of 
Armenia : 

DESCRIPTION OF THE GREATER HERMENIA. 

This is a great country. It begins at a city called 
Arzinga, at which they weave the best buckrams in the 
world. It possesses also the best baths from natural 
springs that are anywhere to be found. The people of 
the country are Armenians, and are subject to the Tartar. 

The country is indeed a passing great one, and in the 
summer it is frequented by the whole host of the Tartars 
of the Levant, because it then furnishes them with such 



28 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

excellent pasture for their cattle. But in winter the cold 
is past all bounds, so in that season they quit this country 
and go to a warmer region where they find other good 
pastures. [At a castle called Paipurth, that you pass in 
going from Trebizond to Tauris, there is a very good 
silver mine.] 

And you must know that it is in this country of Her- 
menia that the Ark of Noah exists on the top of a certain 
great mountain, on the summit of which snow is so con- 
stant that no one can ascend; for the snow never melts, 
and is constantly added to by new falls. Below, however, 
the snow does melt, and runs down, producing such rich 
and abundant herbage that in summer cattle are sent to 
pasture from a long way round about, and it never fails 
them. The melting snow also causes a great amount of 
mud on the mountain. 

The country is bounded on the south by a kingdom 
called Mosul, the people of which are Jacobite and Nes- 
torian Christians, of whom I shall have more to tell you 
presently. On the north it is bounded by the Land of 
the Georgians, of whom also I shall speak. On the con- 
fines from Georgiania there is a fountain from which oil 
springs in great abundance, insomuch that a hundred ship- 
loads might be taken from it at one time. This oil is not 
good to use with food, but 'tis good to burn, and is also 
used to anoint camels that have the mange. People come 
from vast distances to fetch it, for in all the countries 
round about they have no other oil. 

Between Trebizond and Erzerum was Paipurth, 
which must be the Baiburt of our day. Even in 
Marco Polo's time it appears that something was 
known about petroleum, or coal-oil ; for the fountain 
of which he speaks is doubtless in the petroleum 



III.] NOAH'S ARK. 29 

region on the peninsula of Baku, on the western 
coasts of the Caspian Sea, from which many ship- 
loads of oil are now annually exported, chiefly to 
Russia, under whose rule the country is now held. 
Even later than Marco's day it was believed that 
Noah's Ark, or fragments of it, rested on the top 
of Mount Ararat ; but as that mountain is nearly 
17,000 feet high, and is covered with perpetual 
snow, nobody had the courage to go up and find 
the ark, until as late as 1829, when the ascent was 
made by Professor Parrot, a German traveller. 

Every school-boy knows that Bagdad was the 
seat of Arabic learning in ancient times, and that 
its name often appears in that most delightful book 
" The Arabian Nights' Entertainments " with that of 
the Caliph, the good Harun-al-Rachid. That famous 
personage died long before Marco Polo visited 
Bagdad ; but the stories of the Arabian Nights 
were commonly believed by the people of those parts, 
as we shall see later on in Marco's book. 

The kingdom of Georgiania, of which Marco 
Polo speaks, is that province of Russia which lies 
south of the Caucasian range of mountains, between 
the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Georgian 
men and women are still famous for their beauty ; 
they represent the purest type of the Caucasian 
race now known. From this region, for centuries, 
Eastern princes and potentates have been wont to 



30 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

bring the beautiful women of their harems. Other 
writers besides Marco refer to the fact that all the 
kings of ancient Georgia bore the name of David, 
just as each Roman emperor for a time was known 
as Caesar. Marco sets down the statement about 
the eagle-mark on the right shoulder of the king, 
it will be noticed, with some reserve ; he says this 
was true "in old times," as if it were a legend in 
the country in his day. 

The reader will find that Marco uses the words 
" Ponent " and " Levant " throughout his book to 
distinguish between the extreme East and the more 
immediate West. East of the Caspian Sea was, 
and is, the Levant : westward, on both sides of 
the Black Sea, was the Ponent. Alexander the 
Great, whose conquests extended to these parts, 
occupied Derbend, or Derbent, a port on the west 
shore of the Caspian Sea, where to this day they 
will show you the remains of a wall along the 
the mountains, known as " Alexander's Rampart." 
The story goes that Alexander drove into the 
country beyond the mountains several unclean tribes, 
who were cannibals and idolaters, and shut them 
in by building a huge iron gate, which kept them 
securely behind the Caucasus. 

Concerning the products of the country of which 
our traveller speaks, it may be said that boxwood, 
a dense, fine-grained wood, used for engraving 



III.] GEORGIANIA AND ITS KINGS. 3 1 

pictures for printing, is still brought from those 
regions, the Turkish boxwood being the most 
highly esteemed. The silk of the province of Gil, 
or Ghelle, is famed for its high quality. In the 
Middle Ages one of the sports of royalty and 
nobility in Europe, as well as in Far Cathay, was 
hunting game with trained hawks, and the goshawks 
of Georgia were said to be the best in the world 
for that purpose. Marco's tale of the lake in which 
a great abundance of fish could be found during 
Lent, when all good Catholics eat no meat, and 
which were gone during the rest of the year, is 
only one of many such traditions of sundry rivers 
and lakes in different parts of the world. The 
same is told of many lands and countries ; and if 
Marco believed what he heard of the miraculous 
fish of "St. Leonard's," he really believed one of 
the commonest travellers' tales of his time. 

OF GEORGIANIA AND THE KINGS THEREOF. 

In Georgiania there is a King called David Melic, 
which is as much as to say " David King " ; he is subject 
to the Tartar. In old times all the kings were born 
with the figure of an eagle upon the right shoulder. The 
people are very handsome, capital archers, and most valiant 
soldiers. They are Christians of the Greek Rite, and have 
a fashion of wearing their hair cropped, like Churchmen. 

This is the country beyond which Alexander could not 
pass when he wished to penetrate to the region of the 
Ponent, because that the defile was so narrow and perilous, 



32 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the sea lying on the one hand, and on the other lofty 
mountains impassable to horsemen. The strait extends 
like this for four leagues, and a handful of people might 
hold it against all the world. Alexander caused a very 
strong tower to be built there, to prevent the people 
beyond from passing to attack him, and this got the name 
of the Iron Gate. This is the place that the Book of 
Alexander speaks of, when it tells us how he shut up the 
Tartars between two mountains ; not that they were really 
Tartars, however, for there were no Tartars in those days, 
but they consisted of a race of people called Comanians 
and many besides. 

In this province all the forests are of boxwood. There 
are numerous towns and villages, and silk is produced in 
great abundance. They also weave cloths of gold, and 
all kinds of very fine silk stuffs. The country produces 
the best goshawks in the world, which are called AvigL 
It has indeed no lack of anything, and the people live 
by trade and handicrafts. 'Tis a very mountainous region, 
and full of strait defiles and of fortresses, insomuch that 
the Tartars have never been able to subdue it out and out. 

There is in this country a certain Convent of Nuns called 
St. Leonard's, about which I have to tell you a very 
wonderful circumstance. Near the church in question 
there is a great lake at the foot of a mountain, and in this 
lake are found no fish, great or small, throughout the year 
till Lent come. On the first day of Lent they find in 
it the finest fish in the world, and great store too thereof; 
and these continue to be found till Easter Eve. After 
that they are found no more till Lent come round again ; 
and so 'tis every year. 'Tis really a passing great miracle ! 

That sea whereof I spoke as coming so near the moun- 
tains is called the Sea of Ghel or Ghelan, and extends 
about seven hundred miles. It is twelve days' journey 
distant from any other sea, and into it flows the great 



III.] BAGDAD. 33 

River Euphrates and many others, whilst it is surrounded 
by mountains. Of late the merchants of Genoa have 
begun to navigate this sea, carrying ships across and 
launching them thereon. It is from the country on this 
sea also that the silk called Ghelle is brought. The said 
sea produces quantities of fish, especially sturgeon, at the 
river-mouths salmon, and other big kinds of fish. 

In Marco's day Bagdad was known as Baudas ; 
and one of the chapters of his book runs thus : 

OF THE GREAT CITY OF BAUDAS, AND HOW IT 
WAS TAKEN. 

Baudas is a great city, which used to be the seat of the 
Calif of all the Saracens in the world, just as Rome is 
the seat of the Pope of all the Christians. A very great 
river flows through the city, and by this you can descend 
to the Sea of India. There is a great traffic of merchants 
with their goods this way ; they descend some eighteen 
days from Baudas, and then come to a certain city called 
Kisi, where they enter the Sea of India. There is also 
on the river, as you go from Baudas to Kisi, a great city 
called Bastra, surrounded by woods, in which grow the 
best dates in the world. 

In Baudas they weave many different kinds of silk stuffs 
and gold brocades, such as nasich, and nac, and cra?noisy> 
and many other beautiful tissues richly wrought with figures 
of beasts and birds. It is the noblest and greatest city in 
all those regions. 

Now it came to pass on a day in the year of Christ 1255, 
that the Lord of the Tartars of the Levant, whose name 
was Alaii, Drother to the Great Kaan now reigning, gathered 
a mighty host and came up against Baudas and took it by 
storm. It was a great enterprise ! for in Baudas there were 



34 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

more than one hundred thousand horse, besides foot soldiers. 
And when Alaii had taken the place he found therein a tower 
of the Califs, which was full of gold and silver and other 
treasure; in fact, the greatest accumulation of treasure in 
one spot that was ever known. When he beheld that great 
heap of treasure he was astonished, and, summoning the 
Calif to his presence, he said to him : " Calif, tell me now 
why thou hast gathered such a huge treasure ? What didst 
thou mean to do therewith ? Knewest thou not that I was 
thine enemy, and that I was coming against thee with so 
great an host to cast thee forth of thine heritage ? Where- 
fore didst thou not take of thy gear and employ it in paying 
knights and soldiers to defend thee and thy city ? " 

The Calif wist not what to answer, and said never a 
word. So the Prince continued : " Now then, Calif, since 
I see what a love thou hast borne thy treasure, I will e'en 
give it thee to eat ! " So he shut the Calif up in the 
Treasure Tower, and bade that neither meat nor drink 
should be given him, saying : " Now, Calif, eat of thy 
treasure as much as thou wilt, since thou art so fond of it ; 
for never shalt thou have aught else to eat ! " 

So the Calif lingered in the tower four days, and then 
died like a dog. Truly his treasure would have been of 
more service to him had he bestowed it upon men who 
would have defended his kingdom and his people, rather 
than let himself be taken and deposed and put to death as 
he was. Howbeit, since that time, there has been never 
.another Calif, either at Baudas or anywhere else. 

The Bastra of Marco Polo is the modern Basra, 
which is situated below the meeting of the Euphrates 
and the Tigris, and is still famed for the abundance 
of its delicious dates. The beautiful cloths called 



III.] THE MISERLY CALIPH. 35 

by Marco nac, naszch, and cramoisy were woven of 
silk and gold threads ; and when they found their 
way to the courts of Europe, long afterwards, they 
were worn by the rich and great. In tales of 
the time of good Queen Bess we find references 
to cramoisy. 

Many modern writers have made use of the story 
of the miserly Caliph of Bagdad who perished so 
miserably in the midst of his gold ; and it is- clear 
that the poet Longfellow had in mind the tale 
told by Marco Polo when he wrote in his " Flower- 
de-Luce " the poem of " Kambalu," the chief part 
of which runs thus : 

I said to the Kalif : Thou art old ; 

Thou hast no need of so much gold. 

Thou shouldst not have heaped and hidden it here 

Till the breath of battle was hot and near, 

But have sown through the land these useless hoards, 

To spring into shining blades of swords, 

And keep thine honour sweet and clear. 

Then into his dungeon I locked the drone, 
And left him there to feed all alone 
In the honey-cells of his golden hive : 
Never a prayer nor a cry nor a groan 
Was heard from those massive walls of stone, 
Nor again was the Kalif seen alive. 

This is the story strange and true, 
That the great Captain Alaii 
Told to his brother, the Tartar Khan, 
When he rode that day into Kambalu 
By the road that leadeth to Ispahan. 



2,6 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

Marco Polo now proceeds to tell us of "a great 
marvel that occurred between Baudas and Mansul " : 

There was a Calif of Baudas [probably the predecessor 
of our miserly friend] who bore a great hatred to Christians, 
and was taken up day and night with the thought how he 
might bring those that were in his kingdom over to his 
own faith, or might procure them all to be slain. And he 
used daily to take counsel about this with the devotees and 
priests, of his faith, for they all bore the Christians like 
malice. And, indeed, it is a fact that the whole body of 
Saracens, throughout the world are always most malignantly 
disposed towards the whole body of Christians. 

Now* it ' happened that the Calif, with those shrewd 
priests of his, got hold of that passage in our Gospel which 
says, that, if a Christian had faith as a grain of mustard 
seed, and should bid a mountain be removed, it would be 
removed. And such indeed is the truth. But when they 
had got hold of this text they were delighted, for it seemed 
to them the very thing whereby either to force all the 
Christians to change their faith, or to bring destruction 
upon them all. The Calif therefore called together all the 
Christians in his territories, who were extremely numerous, 
and when they had come before him he showed them 
the Gospel, and made them read the text which I have 
mentioned. And when they had read it, he asked them 
if that was the truth ? The Christians answered that it 
assuredly was so. " Well," said the Calif, " since you say 
that it is the truth, I will give you a choice. Among such 
a number of you there must needs surely be this small 
amount of faith, so you must either move that mountain 
there " — and he pointed to a mountain in the neighbour- 
hood — " or you shall die an ill death ; unless you choose 
to eschew death by all becoming Saracens and adopting 



III.] THE ONE-EYED COBBLER. 3£ 

our Holy Law. To this end I give you a respite of ten 
days ; if the thing be not done by that time, ye shall 
die or become Saracens." And when he had said this he 
dismissed them to consider what was to be done in this 
strait wherein they were. 

All the wisest of the Christians took counsel together, 
and among them were a number of bishops and priests ; 
but they had no resource except to turn to Him from 
whom all good things do come, beseeching Him to protect 
them from the cruel hands of the Calif. 

So they were all gathered together in prayer, both men 
and women, for eight days and eight nights. And whilst 
they were thus engaged in prayer it was revealed in a 
vision by a Holy Angel of Heaven to a certain Bishop 
who was a very good Christian, that he should desire a 
certain Cobbler, who had but one eye, to pray to God, 
and that God in His goodness would grant such prayer 
because of the Cobbler's holy life. 

Now when this vision had visited the Bishop several 
times, he related the whole matter to the Christians, and 
they agreed with one consent to call the Cobbler before 
them. And when he had come, they told him it was their 
wish that he should pray, and that God had promised to 
accomplish the matter by his means. On hearing their 
request, he made many excuses, declaring that he was not 
at all so good a man as they represented. But they per- 
sisted in their request with so much sweetness, that at last 
he said he would not tarry, but do what they desired. 

And when the appointed day was come, all the Christians 
got up early, men and women, small and great — more than 
one hundred thousand persons — and went to church, and 
heard the Holy Mass. And after Mass had been sung, 
they all went forth together in a great procession to the 
plain in front of the mountain, carrying the precious Cross 
before them, loudly singing and greatly weeping as they 



38 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. III. 

went. And when they arrived at the spot, there they 
found the Calif with all his Saracen host armed to slay 
them if they would not change their faith ; for the Saracens 
believed not in the least that God would grant such favour 
to the Christians. These latter stood, indeed, in great 
fear and doubt, but nevertheless they rested their hope on 
their God Jesus Christ. 

So the Cobbler received the Bishop's benison, and then 
threw himself on his knees before the Holy Cross, and 
stretched out his hands towards Heaven, and made this 
prayer: "Blessed Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee by 
Thy goodness that Thou wilt grant this grace unto Thy 
people, insomuch that they perish not, nor Thy faith be 
cast down, nor abused, nor flouted. Not that I am in 
the least worthy to prefer such request unto Thee ; but 
for Thy great power and mercy I beseech Thee to hear 
this prayer from me Thy servant full of sin." 

And when he had ended this his prayer to God the 
Sovereign Father and Giver of all grace, and whilst the 
Calif and all the Saracens and other people there were 
looking on, the mountain rose out of its place, and moved 
to the spot which the Calif had pointed out. And when 
the Calif and all his Saracens beheld, they stood amazed 
at the wonderful miracle that God had wrought for the 
Christians, insomuch that a great number of the Saracens 
became Christians. And even the Calif caused himself to 
be baptised in the Name of the Father and of the Son 
and of the Holy Ghost, Amen, and became a Christian, 
but in secret. Howbeit, when he died, they found a little 
cross hung round his neck ; and therefore the Saracens 
would not bury him with the other Califs, but put him in 
a place apart. The Christians exulted greatly at this most 
holy miracle, and returned to their homes full of joy, 
giving thanks to their Creator for that which He had done. 







*^l- ._ .W-i- 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE THREE KINGS — THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN — STORIES 
AND ADVENTURES IN PERSIA — ORIGIN OF THE ASSASSINS. 

DOUBTLESS all our readers are well acquainted 
with the story of the visit of the Three Kings, 
or Magi, to Bethlehem, when the Saviour was born. 
There is an ancient Christian tradition that the three 
men set out from Persia, and that their names were 
Melchior, Balthazar, and Kaspar : these wise men 
of the East, as they were called, are supposed to have 
returned to Persia after their visit to Palestine ; and 
Marco Polo tells this tale as it was told to him : 



OF THE GREAT COUNTRY OF PERSIA ; WITH SOME 
ACCOUNT OF THE THREE KINGS. 

Persia is a great country, which was in old times very 
illustrious and powerful ; but now the Tartars have wasted 
and destroyed it. 

39 



40 



THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. 



[Ch. 



In Persia is the city of Saba, from which the Three Magi 
set out when they went to worship Jesus Christ; and in 
this city they are buried, in three very large and beautiful 
monuments side by side. And above them there is a 
square building, carefully kept. 'The bodies are still entire 
with the hair and beard remaining. Messer Marco Polo 




THE CASTLE OF THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 



asked a great many questions of the people of that city as 
to those Three Magi, but never one could he find that 
knew aught of the matter except that these were Three 
Kings who were buried there in days of old. However, at 
a place three days' journey distant he heard of what I am 
going to tell you. He found a village there which goes by 
the name of Cala Ataperistan, which is as much as to say, 
" The Castle of the Fire-worshippers." And the name is 



IV.] THE THREE MAGI. 4 1 

rightly applied, for the people there do worship fire, and I 
will tell you why. 

They relate that in old times Three Kings of that country 
went away to worship a Prophet that was born, and they 
carried with them three' manner of offerings, Gold, and 
Frankincense, and Myrrh ; in order to ascertain whether 
that prophet were God, or an earthly king, or a physician. 
For, say they, if He take the Gold, then He is an earthly 
king ; if He take the Incense, He is God ; if he take the 
Myrrh, he is a physician. 

So it came to pass when they had come to the place 
where the Child was born, the youngest of the Three Kings 
went in first, and found the Child apparently just of his 
own age ; so he went forth again, marvelling greatly. The 
middle one entered next, and like the first he found the 
Child seemingly of his own age; so he also went forth 
again, and marvelled greatly. Lastly, the eldest went in, 
and as it had befallen the other two, so it befell him ; and 
he went forth very pensive. And when the three had 
rejoined one another, each told what he had seen ; and 
then they all marvelled the more. So they agreed to go 
in all three together, and on doing so they beheld the 
Child with the appearance of its actual age, to wit, some 
thirteen days. Then they adored, and presented their 
Gold, and Incense, and Myrrh. And the Child took all 
the three offerings, and then gave them a small closed 
box; whereupon the Kings departed to return into their 
own land. 

And when they had ridden many days, they said they 
would see what the Child had given them. So they opened 
the little box, and inside it they found a stone. On seeing 
this they began to wonder what this might be that the 
Child had given them, and what was the import thereof. 
Now the signification was this : When they presented their 
offerings, the Child had accepted all three ; and when they 



42 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

saw that, they had said within themselves that He was the 
True God, and the True King, and the True Physician. 
And what the gift of the stone implied was that this Faith 
which had begun in them should abide firm as a rock. 
For He well knew what was in their thoughts. Howbeit, 
they had no understanding at all of this signification of 
the gift of the stone ; so they cast it into a well. Then 
straightway a fire from Heaven descended into that well 
wherein the stone had been cast. 

And when the Three Kings beheld this marvel they were 
sore amazed, and it greatly repented them that they had 
cast away the stone ; for well they then perceived that it 
had a great and holy meaning. So they took of that fire, 
and carried it into their own country, and placed it in a 
rich and beautiful church. And there the people keep it 
continually burning, and worship it as a god, and all the 
sacrifices they offer are kindled with that fire. And if ever 
the fire becomes extinct, they go to other cities round about 
where the same faith is held, and obtain of that fire from 
them, and carry it to the church. And this is the reason 
why the people of this country worship fire. They will 
often go ten days' journey to get of that fire. 

Such then was the story told by the people of that Castle 
to Messer Marco Polo ; they declared to him for a truth 
that such was their history, and that one of the Three 
Kings was of the city called Saba, and the second of Ava, 
and the third of that very Castle where they still worship 
fire, with the people of all the country round about. 

The latter part of this account of the Three Kings 
and their doings undoubtedly refers to the ancient 
Persian sect of fire-worshippers, known as Parsees. 
The custom of worshipping fire as the source of life, 



A 







-v<^r 




THE THREE KINGS AT THE WELL. 



IV] THE PARSEES. 43 

light, and warmth is almost as old as the human race. 
We can readily imagine how profound must have 
been the reverence and admiration with which the 
primitive man regarded fire when first that element 
was brought into his view. The warming, kindling 
flame, its ruddy and changeful colours and shapes, 
and the comforting of its warmth, must have inspired 
him with rapture and adoration. The sect founded 
by Zoroaster, who flourished about six hundred years 
before the Christian era, paid reverence to the four 
elements of fire, air, earth, and water ; from these 
people, it is believed, descended the Persian fire- 
worshippers, or Parsees. In the course of time, 
however, Persia adopted the Moslem faith, and the 
fire-worshippers were expelled from the country. 
The greater part of them fled to India, where they 
are found in large numbers at the present time ; forty 
thousand of them are living in Bombay, and there 
are not less than two hundred thousand Parsees in 
all India. 

The sacred fire which attracted the attention of 
Marco Polo is still maintained in the temples of the 
Indian fire -worshippers ; and if by accident the fire 
should die, it is rekindled by coals brought from 
another temple, as was the custom among the fire- 
worshippers of whom Marco gives account. " The 
Towers of Silence," near Bombay, are isolated, lonely 
structures where the Parsees expose their dead to be 



44 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

devoured by the flocks of vultures that hover around 
the place. 

In Polo's further account of Persia we have the 
following interesting chapter : 

OF THE EIGHT KINGDOMS OF PERSIA, AND HOW THEY 
ARE NAMED. 

Now you must know that Persia is a very great country, 
and contains eight kingdoms. I will tell you the names 
of them all. 

The first kingdom is that at the beginning of Persia, and 
it is called Casvin ; the second is further to the south, and 
is called Curdistan; the third is called Lor; the fourth 
Suolstan ; the fifth Istanit ; the sixth Serazy ; the seventh 
Soncara ; the eighth Tunocain, which is at the further 
extremity of Persia. All these kingdoms lie in a southerly 
direction except one, to wit, Tunocain ; that lies towards 
the east, and borders on the country of the Arbre Sol. 

In this country of Persia there is a great supply of fine 
horses, and people take them to India for sale, for they are 
horses of great price, a single one being worth as much of 
their money as is equal to 200 livres Tournois ; some will 
be more, some less, according to the quality. Here also 
are the finest asses in the world, one of them being worth 
30 marks of silver, for they are very large and fast, and 
acquire a capital amble. Dealers carry their horses to 
Kisi and Curmosa, two cities on the shores of the Sea of 
India, and there they meet with merchants who take the 
horses on to India for sale. 

In this country there are many cruel and murderous 
people, so that no day passes but there is some homicide 
among them. Were it not for the Government, which is 
that of the Tartars of the Levant, they would do great 



IV.] YASDI AND KERMAN. 45 

mischief to merchants; and indeed, maugre the Govern- 
ment, they often succeed in doing such mischief. Unless 
merchants be well armed they run the risk of being 
murdered, or at least robbed of everything; and it some- 
times happens that a whole party perishes in this way 
when not on their guard. The people are all Saracens, 
i.e. followers of the Law of Mahommet. 

In the cities there are traders and artisans who live by 
their labour and crafts, weaving cloths of gold, and silk 
stuffs of sundry kinds. They have plenty of cotton produced 
in the country ; and abundance of wheat, barley, millet, 
panick, and wine, with fruit of all kinds. 

CONCERNING THE GREAT CITY OF YASDI. 

Yasdi also is properly in Persia ; it is a good and noble 
city, and has a great amount of trade. They weave there 
quantities of a certain silk tissue known as Yasdi, which 
merchants carry into many quarters to dispose of. The 
people are worshippers of Mahommet. 

When you leave this city to travel further, you ride for 
seven days over great plains, finding harbour to receive 
you at three places only. There are many fine woods, 
producing dates, upon the way, such as one can easily ride 
through; and in them there is great sport to be had in 
hunting and hawking, there being partridges and quails 
and abundance of other game, so that the merchants who 
pass that way have plenty of diversion. There are also 
wild asses, handsome creatures. At the end of those seven 
marches over the plain you come to a fine kingdom which 
is called Kerman. 

CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF KERMAN. 

Kerman is a kingdom which is also properly in Persia, 
and formerly it had a hereditary prince. Since the Tartars 



46 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

conquered the country the rule is no longer hereditary, but 
the Tartar sends to administer whatever lord he pleases. 
In this kingdom are produced the stones called turquoises 
in great abundance; they are found in the mountains, 
where they are extracted from the rocks. There are also 
plenty of veins of steel and ondanique. The people 
are very skilful in making harness of war ; their saddles, 
bridles, spurs, swords, bows, quivers, and arms of every 
kind are very well made indeed, according to the fashion 
of those parts. The ladies of the country and their 
daughters also produce exquisite needlework in the em- 
broidery of silk stuffs in different colours, with figures of 
beasts and birds, trees and flowers, and a variety of other 
patterns. They work hangings for the use of noblemen 
so deftly that they are marvels to see, as well as cushions, 
pillows, quilts, and all sorts of things. 

In the mountains of Kerman are found the best falcons 
in the world. They are inferior in size to the peregrine, 
red on the breast, under the neck, and between the thighs ; 
their flight so swift that no bird can escape them. 

On quitting the city you ride on for seven days, always 
finding towns, villages, and handsome dwelling-houses, so 
that it is very pleasant travelling; and there is excellent 
sport also to be had by the way in hunting and hawking. 
When you have ridden those seven days over a plain 
country, you come to a great mountain ; and when you 
have got to the top of the pass, you find a great descent 
which occupies some two days to go down. All along you 
find a variety and abundance of fruits ; and in former days 
there were plenty of inhabited places on the road, but now 
there are none ; and you meet with only a few people 
looking after their cattle at pasture. From the city of 
Kerman to this descent the cold in winter is so great that 
you can scarcely abide it, even with a great quantity of 
clothing. 



IV.] THE ZEBU. 47 

OF THE CITY OF CAMADI AND ITS RUINS ; ALSO TOUCHING 
THE CARAONA ROBBERS. 

After you have ridden downhill those two days, you find 
yourself in a vast plain, and at the beginning thereof there 
is a city called Camadi, which formerly was a great and 
noble place, but now is of little consequence, for the 
Tartars in their incursions have several times ravaged it. 
The plain whereof I speak is a very hot region \ and the 
province that we now enter is called Reobarles. 

The fruits of the country are dates, pistachioes, and 
apples of Paradise, with others of the like not found in our 
cold climate. There are vast numbers of turtle-doves, 
attracted by the abundance of fruits ; but the Saracens never 
take them, for they hold them in abomination. And on 
this plain there is a kind of bird called francolin, but 
different from the francolin of other countries, for their 
colour is a mixture of black and white, and the feet and 
beak are vermilion colour. 

The beasts also are peculiar ; and first I will tell you of 
their oxen. These are very large, and all over white as 
snow ; the hair is very short and smooth, which is owing to 
the heat of the country. The horns are short and thick, 
not sharp in the point; and between the shoulders they 
have a round hump some two palms high. There are no 
handsomer creatures in the world. And when they have to 
be loaded, they kneel like the camel ; once the load is 
adjusted, they rise. Their load is a heavy one, for they 
are very strong animals. Then there are sheep here as 
big as asses ; and their tails are so large and fat that one 
tail shall weigh some thirty pounds. They are fine fat 
beasts, and afford capital mutton. 

In this plain there are a number of villages and towns 
which have lofty walls of mud, made as a defence against 
the banditti, who are very numerous, and are called 



48 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

Caraonas. This name is given them because they are 
the sons of Indian mothers by Tartar fathers. And you 
must know that when these Caraonas wish to make a 
plundering incursion, they have certain devilish enchant- 
ments whereby they do bring darkness over the face of 
day, insomuch that you can scarcely discern your comrade 
riding beside you ; and this darkness they will cause to 
extend over a space of seven days' journey. They know 
the country thoroughly, and ride abreast, keeping near one 
another, sometimes to the number of ten thousand, at other 
times more or fewer. In this way they extend across the 
whole plain that they are going to harry, and catch every 
living thing that is found outside of the towns and villages ; 
man, woman, or beast, nothing can escape them ! The old 
men whom they take in this way they butcher ; the young 
men and the women they sell for slaves in other countries ; 
thus the whole land is ruined, and has become well-nigh a 
desert. 

The king of these scoundrels is called Nogodar. This 
Nogodar had gone to the Court of Chagatai, who was 
own brother to the Great Kaan, with some ten thousand 
horsemen of his, and abode with him ; for Chagatai was 
his uncle. And whilst there this Nogodar devised a most 
audacious enterprise ; and I will tell you what it was. He 
left his uncle, who was then in Greater Armenia, and fled 
with a great body of horsemen, cruel, unscrupulous fellows, 
first through Badashan, and then through another province 
called Pashai-Dir, and then through another called 
Ariora-Keshemur. There he lost a great number of 
his people and of his horses, for the roads were very 
narrow and perilous. And when he had conquered all 
those provinces, he entered India at the extremity of a 
province called Dalivar. He established himself in that 
city and government, which he took from the King of the. 
country, Asedin Soldan by name, a man of great power 



IV.] PERSIA. 49 

and wealth. And there abideth Nogodar with his army, 
afraid of nobody, and waging war with all the Tartars in 
his neighbourhood. 

Now that I have told you of those scoundrels and their 
history, I must add the fact that Messer Marco himself was 
all but caught by their bands in such a darkness as that I 
have told you of ; but, as it pleased God, he got off and 
threw himself into a village that was hard by, called 
Conosalmi. Howbeit he lost his whole company except 
seven persons who escaped along with him. The rest were 
caught, and some of them sold, some put to death. 

Marco sometimes regards a city as a province, or 
even a kingdom, as he does in this list of the " eight 
kingdoms of Persia." It is now supposed by the 
most intelligent writers on Persia that Marco refers 
to the ancient city of Kazwin, whi h he calls Casvin, 
the first on his list But the province in that 
part of Persia, the northern, is now known as Irak. 
Curdistan is an old form of spelling Kurdistan. Lor 
is Luristan, next to the southward, and the people of 
that province are still noted thieves and bandits. 
Suolstan, so called by Marco, is probably the modern 
Shulistan ; the region known by that name was 
inhabited by the Shuls, or Shauls. Marco's Istanit 
is now believed to be the famous city of Ispahan ; 
and Serazy is readily translatable into the modern 
Shiraz. Soncara is the country of the Shawankars ; 
Tunocain is Kuhistan, the hill country of Persia, of 
which Tun and Kain are the chief cities. 

4 



50 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

Persian horses are quite as famous for beauty and 
speed as they were in the days when our Venetian 
traveller explored the country in which they were 
bred. These fine animals are still exported to India, 
whence a few of them are ultimately carried to 
England and other parts of Europe. Colonel Yule, 
in his book about Marco Polo,, tells of a horse of this 
breed that travelled nine hundred miles in eleven 
days, and of another that accomplished about eleven 
hundred miles within twelve days, taking two days of 
that time for rest. The livre toumois, which Marco 
uses as a standard of coin valuation, was worth £i 
sterling in modern English money, allowing for the 
lower relative value of gold as compared with silver 
in those far-off days ; so that a fine Persian steed 
would cost about £193, English money, or a little 
more than $950, American money. The silver mark 
of that time, thirty of which were paid for a good 
donkey, would be about equal to forty English 
shillings ; and that sum — thirty marks — again allow- 
ing for the lower value of gold as related to silver, 
would be equal to £88 sterling, or $440, American 
currency. 

The fame of Oriental steel blades has extended all 
over the world, dating back to the most ancient 
times; and marvellous stories are told of the flexibility, 
sharpness, and hardness of edged weapons made by 
Arabs, Moors, and other warlike tribes of the East. 



IV.] FAT-TAILED SHEEP. 5 1 

The ondanique of Marco Polo is probably the " Indian 
steel " of which many writers have made mention. 
It was so manufactured that a blade of this material 
possessed an edge of surpassing keenness and hard- 
ness. It was said that a Kerman sabre would cleave 
a European metal helmet in twain without turning 
its own edge. The embroidered and woven silk 
stuffs and carpets of the Kerman region are still 
held in high repute on account of their fineness and 
beauty. 

The francolin, referred to in the extract above 
quoted, is the bird known in England and some parts 
of America as the black partridge, and is highly 
esteemed for its delicate quality. Any intelligent 
youngster will recognise the humped oxen that 
attracted the attention of Marco Polo and awakened 
his interest They are to be found in India and 
other Eastern countries, and poor is the menagerie 
that does not have one or two specimens of the zebu, 
or Indian ox, as it is now called. These beasts are 
very docile, and are taught to kneel to receive the 
loads which they carry on their backs. Fat-tailed 
sheep are also common in various portions of Asia 
Minor and Africa. The tail is broad and flat, 
sometimes weighing fifty or sixty pounds, and is 
considered a great delicacy by the inhabitants of 
those parts of the world. Some travellers of good 
repute have said, that they have seen fat-tailed 



52 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

sheep whose tails were so large, that each animal 
was provided with a slab of wood, fitted under the 
tail, with little trucks, or wheels, attached to the 
end that dragged on the ground. 

The notion that fogs and mists can be brought 
upon the face of the earth by the command of an 
enchanter is truly Oriental ; this is still believed in 
some parts of India, and Mr. F. Marion Crawford, 
the novelist, has made use of an enchanted fog in one 
of his romances. It is certain, however, that a dry 
fog, which seems to be really a dust-storm, is of 
common occurrence in Persia and Northern India. 
The phenomenon is strange and baffling, and it is 
not surprising that the residents of that country, not 
understanding why the air should be filled with dry 
dust while it is yet perfectly still, should charge this 
to the operations of some enchanter. In such a 
dust-storm the raids of robbers, who take advantage 
of the panic and the obscurity prevailing, would be 
successful, and very disastrous to the unfortunates 
whose flocks and herds would be captured and driven 
off. The Caraonas, nowadays known as Hazaras, 
are bold and daring brigands ; they have sometimes 
ridden up to the very gates of the city of Ispahan on 
their wild forays in search of plunder, ravaging the 
country and leaving behind them nothing that can be 
carried off or destroyed. 

Here may be given a few extracts from Marco's 



IV.] STITCHED SHIPS. 53 

interesting account of the city of Hormos and its 
inhabitants, showing what they eat and drink, how 
they build their ships, and how they avoid the 
poison-wind and its terrible effects. 

Tis, he says, a city of immense trade. There are 
plenty of towns and villages under it, but it is the capital. 
The King is called Ruomedam Ahomet. It is a very sickly 
place, and the heat of the sun is tremendous. If any 
foreign merchant dies there, the King takes all his property. 

In this country they make a wine of dates mixed with 
spices, which is very good. When any one not used to 
it first drinks this wine, it causes repeated and violent pains ; 
but afterwards he is all the better for it, and gets fat upon 
it. The people never eat meat and wheaten bread except 
when they are ill, and if they take such food when they are 
in health it makes them ill. Their food when in health 
consists of dates and salt fish (tunny, to wit) and onions, 
and this kind of diet they maintain in order to preserve 
their health. 

Their ships are wretched affairs, and many of them get 
lost ; for they have no iron fastenings, and are only stitched 
together with twine made from the husk of the Indian nut. 
They beat this husk until it becomes like horsehair, and 
from that they spin twine, and with this stitch the planks 
of the ships together. It keeps well, and is not corroded 
by the sea-water, but it will not stand well in a storm. 
The ships are not pitched, but are rubbed with fish-oil. 
They have one mast, one sail, and one rudder, and have 
no deck, but only a cover spread over the cargo when 
loaded. This cover consists of hides, and on the top of 
these hides they put the horses which they take to India 
for sale. They have no iron to make nails of, and for this 
reason they use only wooden trenails in their shipbuilding, 



54 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

and then stitch the planks with twine as I have told you. 
Hence 'tis a perilous business to go a voyage in one of 
those ships, and many of them are lost, for in that Sea of 
India the storms are often terrible. 

The people are black, and are worshippers of Mahommet. 
The residents avoid living in the cities, for the heat in 
summer is so great that it would kill them. Hence they 
go out (to sleep) at their gardens in the country, where 
there are streams and plenty of water. For all that they 
would not escape but for one thing that I will mention. 
The fact is, you see, that in summer a wind often blows 
across the sands which encompass the plain, so intolerably 
hot that it would kill everybody, were it not that, when 
they perceive that wind coming, they plunge into water up 
to the neck, and so abide until the wind have ceased. 

And to prove the great heat of this wind, Messer Mark 
related a case that befell when he was there. The Lord 
of Hormos, not having paid his tribute to the King of 
Kerman, the latter resolved to claim it at the time when 
the people of Hormos were residing away from the city. 
So he caused a force of sixteen hundred horse and five 
thousand foot to be got ready, and sent them by the 
route of Reobarles to take the others by surprise. Now it 
happened one day that through the fault of their guide 
they were not able to reach the place appointed for their 
night's halt, and were obliged to bivouac in the wilderness 
not far from Hormos. In the morning as they were starting 
on their march they were caught by that wind, and every 
man of them was suffocated, so that not one survived to 
carry the tidings to their lord. When the people of 
Hormos heard of this, they went forth to bury the bodies, 
lest they should breed a pestilence. But when they laid 
hold of them by the arms to drag them to the pits, the 
bodies proved to be so baked > as it were, by that tremendous 
heat, that the arms parted from the trunks, and in the 



IV.] THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN. 55 

end the people had to dig graves hard by each where it 
lay, and so cast them in. 

In Marco's account of Persia we find the hero 
Alali again mentioned by name. It was Alaii who 
captured the castle of the miserly Caliph ; and he it 
was who put an end to the crimes of the wicked 
Old Man of the Mountain. Here is the chapter 
concerning both of those two personages : 

CONCERNING THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN. 

Mulehet is a country in which the Old Man of the 
Mountain dwelt in former days; and the name means 
" Place of the- Aram." I will tell you his whole history as 
related by Messer Marco Polo, who heard it from several 
natives of that region. 

The Old Man was called in their language Aloadin. He 
had caused a certain valley between two mountains to be 
enclosed, and had turned it into a garden, the largest and 
most beautiful that ever was seen, filled with every variety 
of fruit. In it were erected pavilions and palaces, the most 
elegant that can be imagined, all covered with gilding and 
exquisite painting. And there were runnels, too, flowing 
freely with wine and milk and honey and water ; and 
numbers of ladies, the most beautiful in the world, who 
could play on all manner of instruments, and sang most 
sweetly, and danced in a manner that it was charming to 
behold. For the Old Man desired to make his people 
believe that this was actually Paradise. So he had 
fashioned it after the description that Mahommet gave of 
his Paradise, to wit, that it should be a beautiful garden run- 
ning with conduits of wine and milk and honey and water ; 



56 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

and sure enough the Saracens of those parts believed that 
it was Paradise. 

Now no man was allowed to enter the Garden save those 
whom he intended to be his Ashishin. There was a 
Fortress at the entrance to the Garden, strong enough to 
resist all the world, and there was no other way to get in. 
He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the country, 
from twelve to twenty years of age, such as had a taste for 
soldiering, and to these he used to tell tales about Paradise, 
just as Mahommet had been wont to do, and they believed 
in him just as the Saracens believe in Mahommet. Then he 
would introduce them into his Garden, some four, or six, 
or ten at a time, having first made them drink a certain 
potion which cast them into a deep sleep, and then causing 
them to be lifted and carried in. So when they awoke they 
found themselves in the Garden. 

Now this Prince whom we call the Old One kept his 
Court in grand and noble style, and made those simple hill- 
folks about him believe firmly that he was a great Prophet. 
And when he wanted one of his Ashishin to send on any 
mission, he would cause that potion, whereof I spoke, to be 
given to one of the youths in the Garden, and then had 
him carried into his Palace. So when the young man 
awoke, he found himself in the Castle, and no longer in 
that Paradise ; whereat he was not over-well pleased. He 
was then conducted to the Old Man's presence, and 
bowed before him with great veneration, as believing him- 
self to be in the presence of a true Prophet. The Prince 
would then ask whence he came, and he would reply that 
he came from Paradise ! and that it was exactly such as 
Mahommet had described it in the Law. This of course 
gave the others who stood by, and who had not been 
admitted, the greatest desire to enter therein. 

So when the Old Man would have any Prince slain, he 
would say to such a youth : " Go thou and slay So-and-So ; and 



'W"3< ■ 







THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN. 



IV.] HIS ASSASSINS. 57 

when thou returnest my Angels shall bear thee into Paradise. 
And shouldst thou die, natheless even so will I send my 
Angels to carry thee back into Paradise." So he caused them 
to believe ; and thus there was no order of his that they 
would not affront any peril to execute, for the great desire 
they had to get back into that Paradise of his. And in this 
manner the Old One got his people to murder any one 
whom he desired to get rid of. Thus, too, the great dread 
that he inspired all Princes withal made them become his 
tributaries, in order that he might abide at peace and amity 
with them. 

I should also tell you that the Old Man had certain 
others under him, who copied his proceedings and acted 
exactly in the same manner. One of these was sent into 
the territory of Damascus, and the other into Curdistan. 

Now it came to pass in the year 1252, that Alaii, Lord of 
the Tartars of the Levant, heard tell of these great crimes 
of the Old Man, and resolved to make an end of him. So 
he took and sent one of his Barons with a great Army to 
that Castle, and they besieged it for three years, but they 
could not take it, so strong was it. And indeed if they had 
had food within, it never would have been taken. But after 
being besieged those three years they ran short of victual, 
and were taken. The Old Man was put to death with all 
his men, and the Castle with its Garden of Paradise was 
levelled with the ground. And since that time he has had 
no successor ; and there was an end to all his villainies. 

The region in which, according to Marco Polo, the 
Old Man of the Mountain lived and reigned was 
the mountainous part of Persia, in the far north. 
But in the time of the first Crusaders, which was 
some two hundred years earlier, the chief of a band 



58 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

of scoundrels and men-slayers, one Hassan-ben-Sabah, 
had his stronghold in Mount Lebanon, in the southern 
part of Syria; and he was also known as the Old 
Man of the Mountain. 

It is interesting to know that the story of the Old 
One was current all over the East, and that we get 
our word "assassin" from the vile practices of that 
wicked man, who really did exist, and whose fol- 
lowers are still to be found in remote corners of the 
East. The drug which he gave to those whom he 
desired to enlist in his band was hashish, or Cannabis 
Indica. This is a learned name for Indian hemp, 
from which the drug is derived. Men who used the 
hashish to give them pleasant sleep and beautiful 
dreams were called " hashishiyyin " ; and it was easy 
to make the word " assassin " out of hashishiyyin. 

That this is the true origin of the English word 
nobody need doubt. As Marco passed by the castle 
of the Old Man of the Mountain not long after the 
defeat of the latter by the Prince Alaii, we can believe 
that he heard a true account of what had happened ; 
and it is not unlikely that the followers of this chief, 
the Assassins, as they were called, were a numerous 
band of fanatics who were spread over a considerable 
part of the East. 

At Taican, three days' journey from Badashan, 
Marco is much struck (and no wonder) by the moun- 
tains of salt : 



IV.] MOUNTAINS OF SALT. 59 

Taicaa is a line place, and the mountains that you see 
towards the south are all composed of salt. People from 
all the countries round, to some thirty days' journey, come 
to fetch this salt, which is the best in the world, and is so 
hard that it can only be broken with iron picks. 'Tis in 
such abundance that it would supply the whole world to the 
end of time. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE GEMS OF BADAKSHAN— A ROYAL PREROGATIVE— THE 
CONJURERS OF CASHMERE. 

T) AD AS HAN, of which our traveller wrote an 
^~* interesting account, is now known as Badak- 
shan ; it lies to the north of that range of mountains 
which bears the name of the Hindu Kush, in Central 
Asia, south of Bokhara and north of Afghanistan. 
Marco's eyes are now turned eastward, and he writes 
thus of the country of which the outside world knew 
nothing then : 

OF THE PROVINCE OF BADASHAN. 

Badashan is a Province inhabited by people who worship 
Mahommet, and have a peculiar language. It forms a very 
great kingdom, and the royalty is hereditary. All those 
of the royal blood are descended from King Alexander 
and the daughter of King Darius, who was Lord of the 
vast Empire of Persia. And all these kings call themselves 
in the Saracen tongue Zulcarniain, which is as much as 
to say " Alexander " ; and this out of regard for Alexander 
the Great. 

It is in this province that those fine and valuable gems, 
the Balas Rubies, are found. They are got in certain 

60 



Ch. V.] GEMS OF BADAKSHAN. 6l 

rocks among the mountains, and in the search for them 
the people dig great caves underground, just as is done 
by miners for silver. There is but one special mountain 
that produces them, and it is called Syghinan. The stones 
are dug on the King's account, and no one else dares dig 
in that mountain on pain of forfeiture of life as well as 
goods ; nor may any one carry the stones out of the 
kingdom. But the King amasses them all, and sends them 
to other kings when he has tribute to render, or when he 
desires to offer a friendly present; and such only as he 
pleases he causes to be sold. Thus he acts in order to 
keep the Balas at a high value; for if he were to allow 
everybody to dig, they would extract so many that the 
world would be glutted with them, and they would cease 
to bear any value. Hence it is that he allows so few to 
be taken out, and is so strict in the matter. 

There is also in the same country another mountain, 
in which azure is found ; 'tis the finest in the world, and 
is got in a vein like silver. There are also other mountains 
which contain a great amount of silver ore, so that the 
country is a very rich one ; but it is also (it must be said) 
a very cold one. It produces numbers of excellent horses, 
remarkable for their speed. They are not shod at all, 
although constantly used in mountainous country and on 
very bad roads. They go at a great pace even down steep 
descents, where other horses neither would nor could do 
the like. And Messer Marco was told that not long ago 
they possessed in that province a breed of horses, descended 
from Alexander's horse Bucephalus, all of which had from 
their birth a particular mark on the forehead. This breed 
was entirely in the hands of an uncle of the King's ; and 
in consequence of his refusing to let the King have any of 
them, the latter put him to death. The widow then, in 
despite, destroyed the whole breed, and it is now extinct. 

In the mountains there are vast numbers of sheep — 



62 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

400, 500, or 600 in a single flock, and all of them wild ; 
and though many of them are taken, they never seem to 
get aught the scarcer. 

Those mountains are so lofty that 'tis a hard day's work, 
from morning till evening, to get to the top of them. On 
getting up, you find an extensive plain, with great abundance 
of grass and trees, and copious springs of pure water running 
down through rocks and ravines. In those brooks are 
found trout and many other fish of dainty kinds ; and the 
air in those regions is so pure, and residence there so 
healthful, that when the men who dwell below in the 
towns, and in the valleys and plains, find themselves 
attacked by any kind of fever or other ailment that may 
hap, they lose no time in going to the hills ; and after 
abiding there two or three days, they quite recover their 
health through the excellence of that air. And Messer 
Marco said he had proved this by experience; for when 
in those parts he had been ill for about a year, but as soon 
as he was advised to visit that mountain he did so and 
got well at once. 

In this kingdom there are many strait and perilous 
passes, so difficult to force that the people have no fear 
of invasion. Their towns and villages also are on lofty 
hills, and in very strong positions. They are excellent 
archers, and much given to the chase; indeed, most of 
them are dependent for clothing on the skins of beasts, 
for stuffs are very dear among them. The great ladies, 
however, are arrayed in stuffs, and I will tell you the style 
of their dress. They all wear trousers made of cotton 
cloth, and into the making of these some will put 60, 80, 
or even 100 ells of stuff. 

OF THE PROVINCE OF PASHAI. 

You must know that ten days' journey to the south of 
Badashan there is a Province called Pashai, the people of 



V.] HORSES OF BADAKSHAN. 63 

which have a peculiar language, and are Idolaters, of a 
brown complexion. They are great adepts in sorceries and 
the diabolic arts. The men wear earrings and brooches of 
•gold and silver set with stones and pearls. They are a 
pestilent people and a crafty ; and they live upon flesh and 
rice. Their country is very hot. 

Now let us proceed and speak of another country which 
is seven days' journey from this one towards the south-east, 
and the name of which is Keshimur. 

The Badakshan country is still famed for its 
rubies, although the quality of the gems is not so 
high as in earlier times ; and the working of the 
ruby mines is a monopoly in the hands of the govern- 
ment. By " azure " Marco means lapis-lazuli, a 
semi-precious stone of a beautiful blue colour, greatly 
esteemed by gem-workers. As for the horses that 
were claimed to have descended from the famous 
Bucephalus of Alexander the Great, we may say 
that many Oriental people are famous braggarts ; 
and although the horses of Badakshan are still so 
beautiful and strong that Afghan robbers continually 
raid the country to steal them, it is unlikely that 
any progeny of Bucephalus were then to be found 
in any quarter of the world. 

Keshimur, of which our traveller next speaks, is 
readily understood to be Cashmere, lying just south 
of the Hindu Kush, and famous for its shawls, attar 
of roses, and other products. Here is Marco's very 
brief account of that province ; • 



64 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

OF THE PROVINCE OF KESHIMUR. 

Keshimur also is a Province inhabited by a people who 
are Idolaters and have a language of their own. They 
have an astonishing acquaintance with the devilries of en- 
chantment; insomuch that they make their idols to speak. 
They can also by their sorceries bring on changes of 
weather and produce darkness, and do a number of things 
so extraordinary that no one without seeing them would 
believe them. Indeed, this country is the very original 
source from which Idolatry has spread abroad. 

In this direction you can proceed further till you come 
to the Sea of India. 

The men are brown and lean, but the women, taking 
them as brunettes, are very beautiful. The food of the 
people is flesh, and milk, and rice. The clime is finely 
tempered, being neither very hot nor very cold. 

There are in this country Eremites (after the fashion of 
those parts), who dwell in seclusion and practise great 
abstinence in eating and drinking. They keep from all 
sins forbidden in their law, so that they are regarded by 
their own folk as holy persons. They live to a great age. 

There are also a number of idolatrous abbeys and 
monasteries. The people of the province do not kill 
animals nor spill blood ; so if they want to eat meat they 
get the Saracens who dwell among them to play the 
butcher. The coral which is carried from our parts of 
the world has a better sale there than in any other 
country. 

Now we will quit this country, and not go any further 
in the same direction; for if we did so we should enter 
India, and that I do not wish to do at present. For, on 
our return journey, I mean to tell you about India : all in 
regular order. Let us go back therefore to Badashan, for 
we cannot otherwise proceed on our journey. 



V.] MERE JUGGLERY. 6$ 

The conjurers of Cashmere seem to have made 
a great impression on Marco, who had seen them 
before at the court of Kublai Khan. They had, and 
still have, a wide reputation for their skill. Like 
many other so-called magicians, they have the power 
of.deceiving on-lookers to so great an extent that men 
have soberly reported that they saw iron float in the 
water, rocks rise in the air without being touched by 
any one, and clouds come and go and mists fall, all 
at the bidding of the magician. It is, of course, all 
mere jugglery. 

Marco's statement that Buddhism, or " Idolatry," 
as he styles it, spread from Cashmere, must be taken 
with some allowance ; for although that faith did 
spread thence into Tibet and other lands where it 
holds great power, it first went into Cashmere from 
India. One of the first of the Ten Obligations, or 
commandments, of Buddhism is to refrain from 
taking life ; and the pious Eremites (or hermits) and 
Buddhists whom Marco saw, while they did not 
hesitate to eat meat, would not kill with their own 
hands the animal that was to be eaten. That is still 
the custom of the country ; the good Buddhist will 
not cause death if he can possibly avoid it. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ROOF OF THE WORLD — HOW THE PAMIR COUNTRY BORDERS 
ON THREE GREAT EMPIRES — THE GREAT HORNED SHEEP OF 
THE STEPPES — A MARVELLOUS STORY OF SAMARCAND. 

IITE have heard much, of late years, about the 
* * Pamir country ; and we shall hear more 
about it as time goes on : for the Pamir steppe, as 
it is sometimes called, lies in the heart of Central 
Asia, north-east of Afghanistan, south of Asiatic 
Russia, and west of Turkestan. Therefore it borders 
on the empires of Russia, China, and British India ; 
on its lofty plains may be fought more than one 
battle for supremacy. It is a series of plateaus, 
1 5,000 feet above the level of the sea ; and some of 
its loftiest mountain peaks are 25,000 feet above sea- 
level. The first account of this wonderful region 
was written by Marco Polo, and is as follows 

In leaving Badashan you ride twelve days between east 
and north-east, ascending a river that runs through land 
belonging to a brother of the Prince of Badashan, and 
containing a good many towns and villages and scattered 
habitations. The people are Mahommetans, and valiant 

66 



Ch.VI.] THE ROOF OF THE WORLD. 67 

in war. At the end of those twelve days you come to a 
province of no great size, extending indeed no more than 
three days' journey in any direction, and this is called 
Vokhan. The people worship Mahommet, and they have 
a peculiar language. They are gallant soldiers, and they 
have a chief whom they call None, which is as much as 
to say Count, and they are liegemen to the Prince of 
Badashan. 

There are numbers of wild beasts of all sorts in this 
region. And when you leave this little country, and ride 
three days north-east, always among mountains, you get 
to such a height that 'tis said to be the highest place in 
the world ! And when you have got to this height, you 
find a great lake between two mountains, and out of it a 
fine river running through a plain clothed with the finest 
pasture in the world ; insomuch that a lean beast there 
will fatten to your heart's content in ten days. There are 
great numbers of all kinds of wild beasts ; among others, 
wild sheep of great size, whose horns are a good six palms 
in length. From these horns the shepherds make great 
bowls to eat from, and they use the horns also to enclose 
folds for their cattle at night. Messer Marco was told also 
that the wolves were numerous, and killed many of those 
wild sheep. Hence quantities of their horns and bones 
were found, and these were made into great heaps by the 
wayside in order to guide travellers when snow was on the 
ground. 

The Plain is called Pamier, and you ride across it for 
twelve days together, finding nothing but a desert without 
habitations or any green thing, so that travellers are obliged 
to carry with them whatever they have need of. The 
region is so lofty and cold that you do not even see any 
birds flying. And I must notice also that because of this 
great cold, fire does not burn so brightly, nor give out so 
much heat as usual, nor does it cook food so effectually. 



68 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

Now, if we go on with our journey towards the east- 
north-east, we travel a good forty days, continually passing 
over mountains and hills, or through valleys, and crossing 
many rivers and tracts of wilderness. And in all this way 
you find neither habitation of man, nor any green thing, 
but must carry with you whatever you require. The 
country is called Bolor. The people dwell high up in 
the mountains, and are savage Idolaters, living only by 
the chase, and clothing themselves in the skins of beasts. 
They are in truth an evil race. 

This is an interesting chapter of Marco's book, 
because it describes a region of which the outside 
world knew nothing from his time until 1838, when 
another European traveller, Captain John Wood, 
passed over it, and verified the account written by 
Marco Polo, more than six hundred years before. 
The Tatars call the loftiest part of the Pamir country 
the Bam-i-Duniah, or " Roof of the World " ; it is the 
highest level region to be found anywhere on the 
globe. It is swept by cold winds, and even in 
summer the dry snow is driven across its surface. 

The great sheep of which Marco speaks are still 
to be found there, and they have been named the 
Ovis Poll, in honour of Marco Polo, who first 
described them. A pair of sheep horns, brought 
home by Captain Wood, measured three feet from 
tip to tip, and each horn was four feet and eight 
inches in length, following the curve of the horn. 
The animals are hunted by the Kirghiz who inhabit 



VI.] OV1S POLL 69 

the lower steppes of that country ; and Wood's 
narrative says : " We saw numbers of horns strewed 
about in every direction, the spoils of the Kirghiz 
hunter. Some of these were of an astonishingly 
large size, and belonged to an animal between a 
goat and a sheep, inhabiting the steppes of Pamir. 
The ends of the horn projecting above the snow 
often indicated the direction of the road," which is 
precisely what Marco has told us. Captain Wood, 




OVIS POLL 



who crossed the Pamir in February, says, when- 
ever they came in sight of a large number of these 
big horns arranged in a semi-circle, they knew that 
there had been a summer encampment of the Kirghiz 
hunters. 

What Marco says of the difficulty of cooking by 
a fire at a great height is entirely correct. Water 
boils at a lower temperature on the top of a high 
mountain than it does in the plain at its foot. The 
usual boiling-point is at 212 degrees, as every bright 
youngster knows ; but on the tops of high mountains 



70 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

water boils at 179 or 180, and men unused to so 
curious a phenomenon are puzzled to see the water 
boiling, and the food remaining uncooked. The 
pressure of the atmosphere is less on the mountain 
top than it is in the plain, and the heat of the fire 
causes the boiling of the water more quickly at the 
greater altitude. Water boils at the top of Mount 
Blanc at a temperature of 185 degrees. 

MARCO TELLS A WONDERFUL STORY. 

Samarcand lies in the southern part of Turkestan, 
just north of Bokhara, and therefore it was behind 
Marco Polo when he had passed the Pamir steppes : 
evidently, he did not visit Samarcand, and could 
not give us any information about the city ; so he 
tells us this story : 

Samarcan is a great and noble cicy towards the north- 
west, inhabited by both Christians and Saracens, who are 
subject to the great Kaan's nephew, Caidou by name; 
he is, however, at bitter enmity with the Kaan. I will tell 
you of a great marvel that happened at this city. 

It is not a great while ago that Sigatay, own brother to 
the Great Kaan, who was lord of this country and of many 
an one besides, became a Christian. The Christians re 
joiced greatly at this, and they built a great church in the 
city, in honour of John the Baptist ; and by his name the 
church was called. And they took a very fine stone which 
belonged to the Saracens, and placed it as the pedestal of 
a column in the middle of the church, supporting the roof. 
It came to pass, however, that Sigatay died. Now the 




-vr-sKp-r* 



THE MIRACULOUS COLUMN. 



VI.] A GLORIOUS MIRACLE. 7 1 

Saracens were full of rancour about that stone that had been 
theirs, and which had been set up in the church of the 
Christians ; and when they saw that the Prince was dead, 
they said one to another that now was the time to get back 
their stone, by fair means or by foul. And that they might 
well do, for they were ten times as many as the Christians. 
So they gat together and went to the church and said 
that the stone they must and would have. The Christians 
acknowledged that it was theirs indeed, but offered to pay 
a large sum of money and so be quit. Howbeit, the others 
replied that they never would give up the stone for any- 
thing in the world. And words ran so high that the Prince 
heard thereof, and ordered the Christians either to arrange 
to satisfy the Saracens, if it might be, with money, or to 
give up the stone. And he allowed them three days to do 
either the one thing or the other. 

The Saracens would on no account agree to leave the 
stone where it was, and this out of pure despite to the 
Christians, for they knew well enough that if the stone 
were stirred the church would come down by the run. So 
the Christians were in great trouble and wist not what to 
do. But they did do the best thing possible ; they besought 
Jesus Christ that He would consider their case, so that the 
holy church should not come to destruction, nor the name 
of its Patron Saint, John the Baptist, be tarnished by its 
ruin. And so when the day fixed by the Prince came 
round, they went to the church betimes in the morning, 
and lo, they found the stone removed from under the 
column ; the foot of the column was without support, and 
yet it bore the load as stoutly as before ! Between the 
foot of the column and the ground there was a space of 
three palms. So the Saracens had away their stone, and 
mighty little joy withal. It was a glorious miracle, nay, 
it is so, for the column still so standeth, and will stand as 
long as God pleaseth. 



72 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. VI. 

Marco was not often at a loss for real information 
concerning the places of which he makes mention. 
But in this case he was like some of the geographers, 
of whom the wise Plutarch speaks when he says, 
that they crowd into the edges of their maps 
parts of the world about which they know nothing, 
and add notes in the margin to the effect, that 
" beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of 
wild beasts and unapproachable bogs." This remark 
moved Dean Swift, the author of " Gulliver's Travels," 
to say : 

So geographers, in Afric maps, 
With savage pictures fill their gaps, 
And o'er unhabitable downs 
Place elephants for want oi towns. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SEA OF SAND AND ITS MARVELS — THE FABLED SALAMANDER 
AND ITS TRUE STORY— SOMETHING ABOUT ASBESTOS. 

T EAVING Turkestan, and entering China to the 
-■— ' eastward of Kashgar and Yarkand, Marco Polo 
crossed the western end of the Great Sandy Desert 
of Gobi, or Shamo, otherwise known to the Chinese 
as the Sea of Sand. This vast extent of desert 
extends over forty degrees of latitude, and has never 
been fully explored even in our own day. In Marco's 
time it was a haunt of mystery, thought to be peopled 
by the strange creatures of the air. That part 
traversed by Marco is narrow, and he crossed it in a 
south-westerly direction. Here is his account of the 
Desert of Lop, or, as it is sometimes called, Lob : 

Lop is a large town at the edge of the Desert, which is 
called the Desert of Lop, and is situated between east 
and north-east. It belongs to the Great Kaan, and the 
people worship Mahommet. Now, such persons as pro- 
pose to cross the Desert take a week's rest in this town 
to refresh themselves and their cattle ; and then they make 
ready for the journey, taking with them a month's supply for 
man and beast. On quitting this city they enter the Desert. 

73 



74 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

The length of this Desert is so great that 'tis said it 
would take a year and more to ride from one end of it to 
the other. And here, where its breadth is least, it takes 
a month to cross it. Tis all composed of hills and valleys 
of sand, and not a thing to eat is to be found on, it. 
But after riding for a day and a night you find fresh water 
enough mayhap for some fifty or a hundred persons with 
their beasts, but not for more. And all across the Desert 
you will find water in like manner, that is to say, in some 
twenty-eight places altogether you will find good water, 
but in no great quantity ; and in four places also you find 
brackish water. 

Beasts there are none ; for there is naught for them to 
eat. But there is a marvellous thing related of this Desert, 
which is that when travellers are on the move by night, 
and one of them chances to lag behind, or to fall asleep 
or the like, when he tries to gain his company again he 
will hear spirits talking, and will suppose them to be his 
comrades. Sometimes the spirits will call him by name; 
and thus shall a traveller ofttimes be led astray, so that 
he never finds his party. And in this way many have 
perished. Sometimes the stray travellers will hear as it 
were the tramp and hum of a great cavalcade of people 
away from the real line of road, and taking this to be their 
own company they will follow the sound ; and when day 
breaks they find that a cheat has been put on them, and 
that they are in an ill plight. Even in the daytime one 
hears those spirits talking. And sometimes you shall hear 
the sound of a variety of musical instruments, and still 
more commonly the sound of drums. Hence in making 
this journey 'tis customary for travellers to keep close 
together. All the animals too have bells at their necks, 
so that they cannot easily get astray. And at sleeping-time 
a signal is put up to show the direction of the next march. 

So thus it is that the Desert is crossed. 



VII.] A HAUNTED DESERT. 75 

Probably this tale of the desert, told by Marco 
Polo, was one of those which gave him a bad name 
among people who were ignorant of what really 
goes on in the midst of a vast desert. From the 
earliest times, men have associated deserts of land or 
sea with mystery ; and all sorts of evil spirits were 
believed to inhabit the waste places of the earth. 
And those who heard Marco's stories, or read them 
afterwards, thought that they were the idle tales of 
Oriental romancers, 

But Marco's tale is corroborated by the Chinese 
historian Matwanlin, who writes : " You have to 
cross a plain of sand, extending for more than one 
hundred leagues. You see nothing in any direction 
but the sky and the sands, without the slightest trace 
of a road ; and travellers find nothing to guide them 
but the bones of men and beasts and the droppings 
of camels. During the passage of this wilderness 
you hear sounds, sometimes of singing, sometimes of 
wailing; and it has often happened that travellers, 
going aside to see what those sounds might be, have 
strayed from their course and been entirely lost ; 
for they were voices of spirits and goblins." Another 
Chinese writer, Hwen Thsang speaks of illusions, 
such as visions of troops marching and halting with 
gleaming arms and waving banners, constantly 
shifting, vanishing, and reappearing. A voice behind 
him calls, " Fear not ! fear not ! " Troubled by these 



y6 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

fantasies on one occasion, Hwen Thsang prayed to 
Kwanin (a Buddhist divinity), but could not get rid 
of them ; though as soon as he had pronounced a 
few words from the Prajna (a holy book) they 
vanished in the twinkling of an eye. 

And it is undoubtedly true that strange sounds 
are often produced by the shifting of the sands, 
especially in the night, after a hot day, when the 
sand cools and the wind blows. It would be easy 
for a superstitious person to believe that these sounds 
were the voices of unseen creatures in the air. 
Sometimes the sounds are like those of a bell, or of 
a drum ; and scientific writers have described the 
places where they have been heard in various parts 
of the world. 

In the story of " The Boy Emigrants," published in 
1876, the author tells of a lad who hears, in the 
midst of the Great American Desert, as it was 
once called, the nine-o'clock bell ringing in his 
New England home, far away. This really hap- 
pened, and the author of the book actually thought 
he heard the bell ring. So, too, the same party of 
boy emigrants saw what they thought were trees, 
water, and lovely hills, floating just above the edge 
of the desert. That was a mirage ; and people have 
seen on the sea-coast a strange apparition of towers, 
palaces, and lofty pinnacles, most beautiful to behold. 
This is a natural phenomenon, and is called the 



VII.] THE SALAMANDER. *]*] 

fata Morgana. So much for this " marvellous " 
story, which no doubt has been called " one of 
Marco Polo's lies." 

In what he says about the fabulous salamander 
we find some more truth ; but he uses it to put to 
ridicule an ancient fable. Here is his account: 

Chingintalas is also a province at the verge of the Desert, 
and lying between north-west and north. It is an extent 
of sixteen days' journey, and belongs to the Great Kaan, 
and contains numerous towns and villages. There are 
three different races of people in it — Idolaters, Saracens, 
and some Nestorian Christians. At the northern extremity 
of this province there is a mountain in which are excellent 
veins of steel and ondanique. And you must know that 
in the same mountain there is a vein of the substance from 
which Salamander is made. For the real truth is that the 
Salamander is no beast, as they allege in our part of the 
world, but is a substance found in the earth; and I will 
tell you about it. 

Everybody must be aware that it can be no animal's 
nature to live in fire, seeing that every animal is com- 
posed of all the four elements. Now I, Marco Polo, had 
a Turkish acquaintance of the name of Zurficar, and he 
was a very clever fellow. And this Turk related how 
he had lived three years in that region on behalf of the 
Great Kaan, in order to procure those Salamanders for 
him. He said that the way they got them was by digging 
in that mountain till they found a certain vein. The sub- 
stance of this vein was then taken and crushed, and when 
so treated it divides as it were into fibres of wool, which 
they set forth to dry. When dry, these fibres were pounded 
in a great copper mortar, and then washed, so as to remove 



?S THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

all the earth, and to leave only the fibres like fibres of 
wool. These were then spun, and made into napkins. 
When first made, these napkins are not very white, but 
by putting them into the fire for a while they come out 
as white as snow. And so again whenever they become 
dirty they are bleached by being put in the fire. 

Now this, and naught else, is the truth about the 
Salamander, and the people of the country all say the 
same. Any other account of the matter is fabulous non- 
sense. And I may add that they have at Rome a napkin 
of this stuff, which the Grand Kaan sent to the Pope. 

Modern geographers are uncertain as to the 
precise location of the province of Chingintalas ; 
but probably it lies somewhere east of Kamul, 
in Chinese Tatary. The story of the salamander, 
an animal which could pass unharmed through 
the fire, is one of the oldest in the world. The 
ancient Greeks thought it true ; and in the Middle 
Ages it was believed that the salamander's body was 
covered with a soft white wool which could be made 
into threads, and spun and woven into cloth. But 
the general belief was that the creature was like a 
lizard in shape ; and it was said that if anybody 
kept a fire burning for one whole year and one day, 
without it ever once going out, a salamander would 
appear and play about in the live coals. 

So far as we know, Marco Polo was the first to 
dispose of this fable, and tell the truth about the 
salamander. The stuff called by the Tatars "sala- 



VII.] ONDANIQUE. 79 

mander's wool " was merely asbestos, a mineral sub- 
stance with a considerable fibre, which can be spun 
out and woven. It is indestructible by fire ; and the 
crude mass may be cleaned and made into sheets 
for various purposes, such as wrapping steam-pipes 
and water-pipes, as is done in our own country. The 
salamander is heard of no more. The " ondanique," of 
which our traveller speaks more than once, is a very 
superior kind of iron ore from which the Orientals 
made their famous steel sword-blades, which were 
of so exceeding fine temper that a blade could be 
doubled into a hoop without breaking. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW JENGHIZ KHAN DEFEATED PRESTER JOHN — THE MYTHICAL 
CHRISTIAN KING AND THE MONGOL CONQUEROR— DIVINERS 
AND THEIR TRICKS — TATAR MIGRATIONS. 

\TOW we come to a fabulous personage whose 
-*■ ^ existence was generally believed in by Euro- 
peans for hundreds of years and up to the time of 
Columbus. This was Presbyter John, a Christian 
prince, who was supposed to reign over a rich and 
powerful kingdom somewhere in Central Asia " east 
of Armenia and Persia," which is a pretty vague 
way of putting the case. Sometimes he was said 
to reign on the eastern coast of Africa ; and his 
name was shortened from Presbyter to Prester. 
Several European potentates sent letters to Prester 
John, and tried to find him and his kingdom. But 
the mysterious Sovereign was never found. What 
Marco Polo says about Prester John, therefore, must 
be taken with many degrees of allowance for the 
superstitions of the time. What he says about 
Jenghiz Khan, however, is worthy of respect and 
belief ; and this account of the origin of the Mongol 

So 



Ch. VIII.] JENGHIZ KHAN. 8 1 

Empire is interesting, for it is history which Marco 
gives us now. 

OF CHINGHIS, AND HOW HE BECAME THE FIRST 
KAAN OF THE TARTARS. 

Now it came to pass in the year 1187 that the Tartars 
made them a King whose name was Chinghis Kaan. 
He was a man of great worth, and of great ability, elo- 
quence, and valour. And as soon as the news that he 
had been chosen King was spread abroad through those 
countries, all the Tartars in the world came to him and 
owned him for their Lord. And right well did he main- 
tain the Sovereignty they had given him. What shall I 
say? The Tartars gathered to him in astonishing mul- 
titude, and when he saw such numbers he made a great 
furniture of spears and arrows and such other arms as 
they used, and set about the conquest of all those regions 
till he had conquered eight provinces. When he con- 
quered a province he did no harm to the people or their 
property, but merely established some of his own men in 
the country along with a proportion of theirs, whilst he 
led the remainder to the conquest of other provinces. 
And when those whom he had conquered became aware 
how well and safely he protected them against all others, 
and how they suffered no ill at his hands, and saw what a 
noble prince he was, then they joined him heart and soul 
and became his devoted followers. And when he had 
thus gathered such a multitude that they seemed to cover 
the earth, he began to think of conquering a great part 
of the world. Now in the year 1200 he sent an embassy 
to Prester John, and desired to have his daughter to 
wife. But when Prester John heard that Chinghis Kaan 
demanded his daughter in marriage he waxed very wroth, 
and said to the Envoys : " What impudence is this, to 

6 



82 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

ask my daughter to wife ? Wist he not well that he was 
my liegeman and serf? Get ye back to him and tell him 
that I had liever set my daughter in the fire than give 
her in marriage to him, and that he deserves death at my 
hand, rebel and traitor that he is ! " So he bade the Envoys 
begone at once, and never come into his presence again. 
The Envoys, on receiving this reply, departed straightway, 
and made haste to their master, and related all that Prester 
John had ordered them to say, keeping nothing back. 

HOW CHINGHIS MUSTERED HIS PEOPLE TO MARCH 
AGAINST PRESTER JOHN. 

When Chinghis Kaan heard the brutal message that 
Prester John had sent him, such rage seized him that his 
heart came nigh to bursting within him, for he was a man 
of a very lofty spirit. At last he spoke, and that so loud 
that all who were present could hear him : " Never more 
might he be Prince if he took not revenge for the brutal 
message of Prester John, and such revenge that insult 
never in this world was so dearly paid for. And before 
long Prester John should know whether he were his serf 
or no ! " 

So then he mustered all his forces, and levied such a 
host as never before was seen or heard of, sending word 
to Prester John to be on his defence. And when Prester 
John had sure tidings that Chinghis was really coming 
against him with such a multitude, he still professed to 
treat it as a jest and a trifle, for, quoth he, " These be no 
soldiers." Natheless he marshalled his forces and mustered 
his people, and made great preparations, in order that if 
Chinghis did come he might take him and put him to 
death. In fact, he marshalled such an host of many 
different nations that it was a world's wonder. 

And so both sides gat ready to battle. Chinghis Kaan 



VIII.] READY FOR BATTLE. 83 

with all his host arrived at a vast and beautiful plain which 
was called Tanduc, belonging to Prester John, and there 
he pitched his camp ; and so great was the multitude of 
his people that it was impossible to number them. And 
when he got tidings that Prester John was coming he 
rejoiced greatly, for the place afforded a fine and ample 
battle-ground, so he was right glad to tarry for him there, 
and greatly longed for his arrival. 

HOW PRESTER JOHN MARCHED TO MEET CHINGHIS. 

Now the story goes that when Prester John became aware 
that Chinghis with his host was marching against him, he 
went forth to meet him with all his forces, and advanced 
until he reached the same plain of Tanduc, and pitched 
his camp over against that of Chinghis Kaan, at a distance 
of twenty miles. And then both armies remained at rest 
for two days that they might be fresher and heartier for 
battle. 

So when the two great hosts were pitched on the plains 
of Tanduc as you have heard, Chinghis Kaan one day 
summoned before him his astrologers, both Christians and 
Saracens, and desired them to let him know which of the 
two hosts would gain the battle, his own or Prester John's. 
The Saracens tried to ascertain, but were unable to give 
a true answer; the Christians, however, did give a true 
answer, and showed manifestly beforehand how the event 
should be. For they got a cane and split it lengthwise, and 
laid one half on this side and one half on that, allowing no 
one to touch the pieces. And one piece of cane they 
called Chinghis Kaan, and the other piece they called 
Prester John. And then they said to Chinghis : " Now 
mark ! and you will see the event of the battle, and who 
shall have the best of it ; for whose cane soever shall get 
above the other, to him shall victory be." He replied that 



84 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Cb. 

he would fain see it, and bade them begin. Then the 
Christian astrologers read a Psalm out of the Psalter, and 
went through other incantations. And lo ! whilst all were 
beholding, the cane that bore the name of Chinghis Kaan, 
without being touched by anybody, advanced to the other 
that bore the name of Prester John, and got on the top 
of it. When the Prince saw that, he was greatly delighted ; 
and seeing how in this matter he found the Christians to 
tell the truth, he always treated them with great respect, 
and held them for men of truth for ever after. 

THE BATTLE BETWEEN CHINGHIS KAAN AND 
PRESTER JOHN. 

And after both sides had rested well those two days, 
they armed for the fight and engaged in desperate combat ; 
and it was the greatest battle that ever was seen. The 
numbers that were slain on both sides were very great, 
but in the end Chinghis Kaan obtained the victory. And 
in the battle Prester John was slain. And from that 
time forward, day by day, his kingdom passed into the 
hands of Chinghis Kaan till the whole was conquered. 

I may tell you that Chinghis Kaan reigned six years 
after this battle, engaged continually in conquest, and 
taking many a province and city and stronghold. But 
at the end of those six years he went against a certain 
castle that was called Caaju, and there he was shot with 
an arrow in the knee, so that he died of his wound. A 
great pity it was, for he was a valiant man and a wise. 

It is difficult to understand that " Christian " men 
were among the astrologers, who practised magical arts 
to find out whether the Great Khan or his adversary- 
would be victorious in the battle which was to be 



VIII.] DIVINING-RODS. 85 

fought. We know, however, that Jenghiz Khan was 
one of the mighty conquerors of that age ; and that 
he was the victor in the fight with the so-called 
Prester John we need have no doubt. 

Rods and wands have been used for divining 
purposes all over the world, and in some parts of the 
world they are used to this day ; not only in Oriental 
countries, where the people are ignorant and super- 
stitious, but in England and America. Money- 
diggers, or men hunting for buried treasure, pretend 
to find the gold underground by means of divining- 
rods ; and others hunt for water with wands or forked 
sticks from a green tree, the notion being that the 
stick will bend down to the earth when the " diviner " 
walks over an underground spring. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF A STRANGE PEOPLE — CONCERNING 
THE TATARS AND THEIR WAYS — THE ORIGIN OF CONDENSED 
MILK. 

"IV /T ARCO is now on familiar ground, and the 
-*-*-*■ accounts which he gives us of the manners 
and customs of the Tatars, both in peace and war, 
are not only entertaining but true to life. 

CONCERNING THE CUSTOMS OF THE TARTARS. 

You should be told that all the Grand Kaans, and all 
the descendants of Chinghis their first Lord, are carried 
to a mountain that is called Altay to be interred. Where- 
soever the Sovereign may die, he is carried to his burial 
in that mountain with his predecessors; no matter, an 
the place of his death were one hundred days' journey 
distant, thither must he be carried to his burial. 

Let me tell you a strange thing too. When they are 
carrying the body of any Emperor to be buried with the 
others, the convoy that goes with the body doth put to 
the sword all whom they fall in with on the road, saying : 
" Go and wait upon your Lord in the other world ! " For 
they do in sooth believe that all such as they slay in this 
manner do go to serve their Lord in the other world. 

86 



Ch. IX.] PORTABLE HUTS. S7 

They do the same too with horses ; for when the Emperor 
dies, they kill all his best horses, in order that he may 
have the use of them in the other world, as they believe. 
And I tell you as a certain truth, that when Mongou Kaan 
died more than twenty thousand persons, who chanced to 
meet the body on its way, were slain in the manner I have 
told. 

Now that we have begun to speak of the Tartars, I 
have plenty to tell you on that subject. The Tartar custom 
is to spend the winter in warm plains, where they find 
good pasture for their cattle, whilst in summer they betake 
themselves to a cool climate among the mountains and 
valleys, where water is to be found as well as woods 
and pastures. 

Their houses are circular, and are made of wands covered 
with felts. These are carried along with them whithersoever 
they go; for the wands are so strongly bound together, 
and likewise so well combined, that the frame can be made 
very light. Whenever they erect these huts the door is 
always to the south. They also have waggons covered 
with black felt so efficaciously that no rain can get in. 
These are drawn by oxen and camels, and the women 
and children travel in them. The women do the buying 
and selling, and whatever is necessary to provide for the 
husband and household; for the men all lead the life of 
gentlemen, troubling themselves about nothing but hunting 
and hawking, and looking after their goshawks and falcons, 
unless it be the practice of warlike exercises. 

They live on the milk and meat which their herds 
supply, and on the produce of the chase ; and they eat 
all kinds of flesh, including that of horses and dogs, and 
Pharaoh's rats, of which last there are great numbers in 
burrows on those plains. 



88 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch 

CONCERNING THE TARTAR CUSTOMS OF WAR. 

All their harness of war is excellent and costly. Their 
arms are bows and arrows, sword and mace; but above 
all the bow, for they are capital archers, indeed the best 
that are known. On their backs they wear armour of 
cuirbouly, prepared from buffalo and other hides, which 
is very strong. They are excellent soldiers, and passing 
valiant in battle. They are also more capable of hardships 
than other nations; for many a time, if need be, they 
will go for a month without any supply of food, except 
milk and such game as their bows may win them. Their 
horses also will subsist entirely on the grass of the plains, 
so that there is no need to carry store of barley or straw 
or oats ; and they are very docile to their riders. These, 
in case of need, will abide on horseback the livelong night, 
armed at all points, while the horse will be continually 
grazing. 

Of all troops in the world these are they which endure 
the greatest hardship and fatigue, and which cost the 
least ; and they are the best of all for making wide con- 
quests of country. And this you will perceive from what 
you have heard and shall hear in this book; and (as a 
fact) there can be no manner of doubt that now they 
are the masters of the biggest half of the world. Their 
troops are admirably ordered in the manner that I shall 
now relate. 

You see, when a Tartar prince goes forth to war, he takes 
with him, say, one hundred thousand horse. Well, he 
appoints an officer to every ten men, one to every hundred, 
one to every thousand, and one to every ten thousand, so 
that his own orders have to be given to ten persons only, 
and each of these ten persons has to pass the orders only 
to other ten, and so on ; no one having to give orders 
to more than ten. And every one in turn is responsible 



IX.] CONDENSED MILK. 89 

only to the officer immediately over him ; and the discipline 
and order that comes of this method is marvellous, for 
they are a people very obedient to their chiefs. Further, 
they call the corps of one hundred thousand men a Tuc ; 
that of ten thousand they call a Toman; the thousand 
they call Miny ; the hundred Guz ; the ten On. And 
when the army is on the march, they have always two 
hundred horsemen, very well mounted, who are sent a 
distance of two marches in advance to reconnoitre, and 
these always keep ahead. They have a similar party 
detached in the rear, and on either flank, so that there is 
a good look-out kept on all sides against a surprise. When 
they are going on a distant expedition, they take no gear 
with them except two leather bottles for milk, a little 
earthenware pot to cook their meat in, and a little tent 
to shelter them from rain. And in case of great urgency 
they will ride ten days without lighting a fire or taking 
a meal. 

They also have milk dried into a kind of paste to carry 
with them ; and when they need food they put this into 
water, and beat it up till it dissolves, and then drink it. 
It is prepared in this way : they boil the milk, and when 
the rich part floats on the top they skim i* into another 
vessel, and of that they make butter ; for v e milk will 
not become solid till this is removed. Then tney put the 
milk into the sun to dry. And when they go on an expedi- 
tion, every man takes some ten pounds of this dried milk 
with him. And of a morning he will take a half-pound of 
it and put it in his leather bottle, with as much water 
as he pleases. So, as he rides along, the milk-paste and 
the water in the bottle get well churned together into a 
kind of pap, and that makes his dinner. 

When they come to an engagement with the enemy, 
they will gain the victory in this fashion. They never let 
themselves get into a regular medley, but keep perpetually 



go THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

riding round and shooting into the enemy. And as 
they do not count it any shame to run away in battle, 
they will sometimes pretend to do so, and in running 
away they turn in the saddle and shoot hard and strong 
at the foe, and in this way make great havoc. Their 
horses are trained so perfectly that they will double hither 
and thither, just like a dog, in a way that is quite aston- 
ishing. Thus they fight to as good purpose in running 
away as if they stood and faced the enemy, because of 
the vast volleys of arrows that they shoot in this way, 
turning round upon their pursuers, who are fancying that 
they have won the battle. But when the Tartars see that 
they have killed and wounded a good many horses and 
men, they wheel round bodily, and return to the charge 
in perfect order and with loud cries ; and in a very short 
time the enemy are routed. In truth, they are stout and 
valiant soldiers, and inured to war. And you perceive 
that it is just when the enemy sees them run, and imagines 
that he has gained the battle, that he has in reality lost 
it; for the Tartars wheel round in a moment when they 
judge the right time has come. And after this fashion 
they have won many a fight. 

All this that I have been telling you is true of the 
manners and customs of the genuine Tartars. But I must 
add also that in these days they are greatly degenerated ; 
for those who are settled in Cathay have taken up the 
practices of the Idolaters of the country, and have aban- 
doned their own institutions ; whilst those who have settled 
in the Levant have adopted the customs of the Saracens. 

The huts in which the Tatars lived in Marco Polo's 
time were just like those used to-day by the wander- 
ing tribes of Central Asia. These slight houses were 
built of a light frame-work of osiers, or willow wands, 



IX.] THE JERBOA. 91 

bent to form a rounded, dome-like hut; and this 
was covered with felt, or cloth, made waterproof by 
being soaked in tallow or milk. Some of the larger 
huts were built on wheels, and when the tribe was 
travelling, the chiefs and their families would ride 
within one of these big vehicles very comfortably, 
if not luxuriously. One traveller, Friar Rubruquis, 
who saw some of the Tatars on their march, measured 
the space between the wheels of one of the great 
waggons, and found it to be twenty feet. "The 
axle," he says, " was like a ship's mast, and twenty- 
two oxen were yoked to the waggon, eleven abreast" 
One of the huts which Rubruquis saw was thirty 
feet in diameter and projected ten feet beyond the 
wheels. 

The animals to which Marco refers as " Pharaoh's 
rats " were probably a species of marmot, very 
common in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Central Asia, 
and sometimes called the jerboa. Behind, it is formed 
like a long-legged little beast, and is a famous jumper, 
as is the kangaroo rat, which it closely resembles. 
The creature feeds on grass and roots, like the 
American "prairie dog," and its flesh is esteemed 
a delicacy. 

The Tatars fought with bows and arrows of great 
power and weight, with which they wrought havoc 
among their enemies, so that they were known among 
the other nations as " The Archers." They made 



92 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

shields and other harness for warlike purposes of 
leather, which had been boiled and then moulded to 
any desired form while it was soft and warm. This 
is the " cuirbouly " alluded to by Marco. 

Evidently the Tatars of those far-off days knew 
how to condense milk, although we regard that 
process as a modern invention. Marco says that 
they dried the milk in the sun. We can understand 
how some of his critics would laugh at the notion 
that milk could be dried to a paste ; but Marco 
is right, for it can be done, nevertheless. 

Marco Polo's account of some of the other curious 
customs of the Tatars will be found interesting : 



CONCERNING THE ADMINISTERING OF JUSTICE AMONG 
THE TARTARS. 

The way they administer justice is this. When any one 
has committed a petty theft, they give him, under the 
orders of authority, seven blows of a stick, or seventeen, 
or twenty-seven, or thirty-seven, or forty-seven, and so 
forth, always increasing by tens in proportion to the injury 
done, and running up to one hundred and seven. Of these 
beatings sometimes they die. But if the offence be horse- 
stealing, or some other great matter, they cut the thief in 
two with a sword. Howbeit, if he be able to ransom him- 
self by paying nine times the value of the thing stolen, he 
is let off. Every Lord or other person who possesses 
beasts has them marked with his peculiar brand, be they 
horses, mares, camels, oxen, cows, or other great cattle, and 
then they are sent abroad to graze over the plains without 



IX.] POSTHUMOUS NUPTIALS. 93 

any keeper. They get all mixed together, but eventually 
every beast is recovered by means of its owner's brand, 
which is known. For their sheep and goats they have 
shepherds. All their cattle are remarkably fine, big, and in 
good condition. 

They have another notable custom, which is this : If 
any man have a daughter who dies before marriage, and 
another man have had a son also die before marriage, the 
parents arrange a grand wedding between the dead lad and 
lass. And marry them they do, making a regular contract ! 
And when the contract papers are made out they put them 
in the fire, in order (as they will have it) that the parties 
in the other world may know the fact, and so look on each 
other as man and wife. And the parents thenceforward 
consider themselves sib to each other, just as if their 
children had lived and married. Whatever may be agreed 
upon between the parties as dowry, those who have to pay 
cause it to be painted on pieces of paper, and then put 
these in the fire, saying that in that way the dead person 
will get all the real articles in the other world. 



CHAPTER X. 

TIBET — THE "GRUNTING OXEN " OF THAT REGION —MUSK-DEER 
AND OTHER ANIMALS. 

T T AVING given us some description of the 
■*■ -*- manners and customs of the Mongol Tatars, 
Marco Polo works his way south-westward toward the 
frontier of Tibet. In the country of Sinju (as he 
calls Siningfu, the Chinese city nearest the Tibetan 
frontier), he saw many interesting beasts and birds. 
In describing some of these he says : 

There are wild cattle in that country almost as big as 
elephants, splendid creatures, covered everywhere but on 
the back with shaggy hair a good four palms long. They 
are partly black, partly white, and really wonderfully fine 
creatures, and the hair or wool is extremely fine and white, 
finer and whiter than silk. Messer Marco brought some to 
Venice as a great curiosity, and so it was reckoned by 
those who saw it. There are also plenty of them tame, 
which have been caught young. These the people use 
commonly for burden and general work, and in the plough 
as well ; and at the latter they will do full twice as much 
work as any other cattle, being such ve r y strong beasts. 

In this country, too, is found the best musk in the 
world ; and I will tell you how 'tis produced. There exists 

94 



Ch. X.] YAKS. 95 

in that region a kind of wild animal like a gazelle. It has 
feet and tail like the gazelle's, and stag's hair of a very 
coarse kind, but no horns. It has four tusks, two below, 
and two above, about three inches long, and slender in 
form, one pair growing upward, and the other downward. 
It is a very pretty creature. The musk is found in this 
way : When the creature has been taken, they find between 
the flesh and the skin something like an impostume full of 
blood, which they cut out and remove with all the skin 
attached to it. And the blood inside this impostume is 
the musk that produces that powerful perfume. There is 
an immense number of these beasts in the country we are 
speaking of. The flesh is very good to eat. Messer 
Marco brought the dried head and feet of one of these 
animals to Venice with him. 

The people are traders and artisans, and also grow 
abundance of corn. The province has an extent of twenty- 
six days' journey. Pheasants are found there twice as big 
as ours, indeed nearly as big as a peacock, and having tails 
of seven to ten palms in length ; and besides them other 
pheasants in aspect like our own, and birds of many other 
kinds, and of beautiful variegated plumage. The people, 
who are Idolaters, are fat folks with little noses and black 
hair, and no beard, except a few hairs on the upper lip. 
The women too have very smooth and white skins, and in 
every respect are pretty creatures. 

The large animals, mentioned first in the extract we 
have given, of which Marco speaks as being " almost 
as big as elephants," are yaks, sometimes called 
" grunting oxen " on account of the peculiar noise 
they make. The yak may be tamed and used as a 
beast of burden ; and generations of them have been 



g6 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

so used in Tibet and China. But the wild yak is 
much larger than the captive of its species, and is also 
very fierce, with big, curving horns, and long white 
hair on its lower parts. These creatures are some- 
times six feet high, and seven or eight feet long. 

The Chinese pheasant mentioned by our traveller 
is a handsome bird, specimens of which have been 
brought to this country since the spread of com- 
merce between China and the rest of the world. 
Marco's description is not exaggerated. The feathers 
of the pheasant are partly golden and partly azure, 
mingled with a reddish brown ; and the tail feathers 
are sometimes seven feet long. Marco's " ten palms " 
length was rather an understatement. 

Musk-deer are still hunted on the frontiers of 
China and Tibet ; and the musk used in the per- 
fumery trade comes from China and Burmah, 
having been previously brought from the region 
referred to by Marco Polo. The little animal, how- 
ever, has only two canine teeth, or " tusks," and not 
four, as described by Marco. Formerly musk was 
used as a medicine in various parts of the world ; but 
doctors in civilised lands do not hold it in high 
repute. In China it is still thought to be a very good 
medicine ; but the Chinese have queer notions about 
cures and charms. Abbe Hue, a distinguished 
traveller, says that when a Tatar doctor finds himself 
without his drugs and medicines he is not in the 




CHINESE PHEASANT 



X.] PAPER PILLS. 97 

least embarrassed. He writes the names of the needed 
drugs on slips of paper, and these, being rolled up in 
little balls, are swallowed by the sick man. "To 
swallow the name of a remedy, or the remedy itself," 
say the Tatars, " comes to precisely the same thing." 



CHAPTER XL 

WHO WERE GOG AND MAGOG ? — THE SPLENDOURS OF THE COURT 
OF KUBLAI KHAN — COLERIDGE'S POEM "IN XANADU." 

'T^URNING his face again to the eastward, Marco 
-*■ takes us to one of the localities near the Great 
Wall ; for although he never once makes mention 
of that wonder of the world, many eminent writers 
suppose that he had in his mind its ramparts when 
he speaks thus of the region which he says is 
Tenduc : 

" Here also is what we call the country of Gog or Magog ; 
they, however, call it Ung and Mungul, after the names of 
two races of people that existed in that province before the 
migration of the Tartars. Ung was the title of the people 
of the country, and Mungul a name sometimes applied to 
Tartars." 

The Great Wall was built before the Tatars, that is 
Mongols, had overrun China, and was intended to 
keep them out. It begins at the Kiayu Pass, near 
the Desert of Gobi, in one of the extreme western 
provinces of China, and extends to the mouth of the 



Ch. XI.] GOG AND MAGOG. 99 

Gulf of Liau-tong, on the eastern coast, about 
fourteen hundred miles. Part of the way, the wall is 
double, and even triple, so that the actual length of 
the builded structure is estimated to be two thousand 
miles. Its height varies, but is generally about 
twenty feet ; it is twenty-five feet broad at the base, 
and fifteen feet at the top. The towers which are 
built along the wall are three hundred feet apart, and 
about forty feet high. The material used is brick 
and stone laid up in thick walls, and filled in with 
earth. The part of the wall which lies to the 
westward has been called the Rampart of Gog and 
Magog. 

Who were Gog and Magog? English tradition 
says that they were the last of a race of giants who 
infested England, until they were destroyed by some 
of the Trojans, who went to the British Isles after the 
destruction of Troy. Gog and Magog, it is said, 
were taken captive to London, where they were 
chained at the door of the king's palace. When 
they died, wooden images of the two giants were 
put in their places. In course of time a great fire 
destroyed these ; but now, if you are in London, 
you will see in the Guildhall two immense wooden 
effigies of men, called Gog and Magog. 

But there are other traditions of the two giants. 
One is to the effect that, when Alexander the Great 
overran Asia, he chased into the mountains of the 

LofC. 



I0O THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

North an impure, wicked, and man-eating people, 
who were twenty-two nations in number, and who 
were shut up with a rampart in which were gates of 
brass or iron. One of these nations was Goth and 
another Magoth, from which we readily get the 
names of the mythical giants. It is probable, how- 
ever, that the Turks were meant by Gog, and that 
the Mongols were the children of Magog. We find 
mention made of Gog and Magog in many books, 
including the Bible ; but there is the Great Wall and 
the Rampart of Gog and Magog, whatever may have 
been the fact which gave the names of the two giants 
to that portion of the structure. 

Outside of the walls, and north of Kalgan, was 
the summer palace of Kublai Khan, in the city of 
Kaipingfu, or City of Peace ; and here the three 
Polos found the Great Khan when they first came 
together to visit him. The palace was called Chandu 
by Marco, but Xandu is believed to be the proper 
way of spelling the title. The traveller's description, 
as we shall see, is very enjoyable, and we can imagine 
that young Marco had a good time viewing its glories 
and its magnificence. He says : 

And when you have ridden three days from the city 
last mentioned, between north-east and north, you come 
to a city called Chandu, which was built by the Kaan 
now reigning. There is at the place a very fine Marble 
Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt, and painted with 



XL] A CANF-BUILT PALACE. 101 

figures of men and beasts and birds, and with a variety 
of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art 
that you regard them with delight and astonishment. 

Round this Palace a wall is built, enclosing a compass 
of sixteen miles, and inside the Park there are fountains 
and rivers and brooks and beautiful meadows, with all 
kinds of wild animals (excluding such as are of ferocious 
nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there 
to supply food for his gerfalcons and hawks, which he 
keeps here in mew. Of these there are more than two 
hundred gerfalcons alone, without reckoning the other 
hawks. The Kaan himself goes every week to see his 
birds sitting in mew, and sometimes he rides through the 
Park with a leopard behind him on his horse's croup ; 
and then if he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he 
slips his leopard at it, and the game when taken is 
made over to feed the hawks in mew. This he does 
for diversion. 

Moreover, at a spot in the Park where there is a charm- 
ing wood, he has another Palace built of cane, of which 
I must give you a description. It is gilt all over, and 
most elaborately finished inside. It is stayed on gilt and 
lacquered columns, on each side of which is a dragon all 
gilt, the tail of which is attached to the column, whilst the 
head supports the architrave, and the claws likewise are 
stretched out right and left to support the architrave. 
The roof, like the rest, is formed of canes, covered with 
a varnish so strong and excellent that no amount of rain 
will rot them. These canes are a good three palms in 
girth, and from ten to fifteen paces in length. They are 
cut across at each knot, and then the pieces are split so 
as to form from each two hollow tiles, and with these the 
house is roofed ; only, every such tile of cane has to be 
nailed down to prevent the wind from lifting it. In short, 
the whole Palace is built of these canes, which serve also 



102 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

for a great variety of other useful purposes. The con- 
struction of the Palace is so devised that it can be taken 
down and put up again with great celerity; and it can 
all be taken to pieces and removed whithersoever the 
Emperor may command. When erected, it is braced 
against mishaps from the wind by more than two hundred 
cords of silk. 

The Lord abides at this Park of his, dwelling sometimes 
in the Marble Palace and sometimes in the Cane Palace 
for three months of the year, to wit, June, July, and 
August, preferring this residence because it is by no 
means hot; in fact, it is a very cool place, When the 
28th day of August arrives he takes his departure, and 
the Cane Palace is taken to pieces. But I must tell you 
what happens when he goes away from this Palace every 
year on the 28th of August. 

You must know that the Kaan keeps an immense stud of 
white horses and mares ; in fact, more than ten thousand 
of them, and all pure white without a speck. The milk 
of these mares is drunk by himself and his family, and 
by none else, except by those of one great tribe that 
have also the privilege of drinking it. This privilege was 
granted them by Chinghis Kaan, on account of a certain 
victory that they helped him to win long ago. The name 
of the tribe is Horiad. 

Now when these mares are passing across the country, 
and any one falls in with them, be he the greatest lord 
in the land, he must not presume to pass until the mares 
have gone by; he must either tarry where he is, or go 
a half-day's journey round if need so be, so as not to 
come nigh them; for they are to be treated with the 
greatest respect. Well, when the Lord sets out from the 
Park on the 28th of August, as I told you, the milk of all 
those mares is taken and sprinkled on the ground. And 
this is done on the injunction of the Idolaters and Idol 



XL] WEATHER-CONJURERS. IO3 

Priests, who say that it is an excellent thing to sprinkle 
that milk on the ground every 28th of August, so that the 
Earth and the Air and the False Gods shall have their 
share of it, and the Spirits likewise that inhabit the Air 
and the Earth. And thus those beings will protect and 
bless the Kaan and his children and his wives and his 
folk and his gear, and his cattle and his horses, his corn, 
and all that is his. After this is done, the Emperor is ofl 
and away. 

But I must now tell you a strange thing that hitherto 
I have forgotten to mention. During the three months 
of every year that the Lord resides at that place, if it 
should happen to be bad weather, there are certain crafty 
enchanters and astrologers in his train, who are such adepts 
in necromancy and the diabolic arts, that they are able 
to prevent any cloud or storm from passing over the spot 
on which the Emperor's Palace stands. The sorcerers 
who do this are called Tebet and Kesimur, which are the 
names of two nations of Idolaters. 

There is another marvel performed by those Bacsi, of 
whom I have been speaking as knowing so many enchant- 
ments. For when the Great Kaan is at his capital and 
in his great Palace, seated at his table, which stands on 
a platform some eight cubits above the ground, his cups 
are set before him on a great buffet in the middle of 
the hall pavement, at a distance of some ten paces from 
his table, and filled with wine, or other good spiced liquor 
such as they use. Now when the Lord desires to drink, 
these enchanters by their enchantments cause the cups 
to move from their places without being touched by any- 
body, and to present themselves to the Emperor ! This 
every one present may witness, and there are ofttimes more 
than ten thousand persons thus present. 'Tis a truth and 
no lie ! and so will tell you the sages of our own country 
who understand necromancy, for they also can perform it. 



104 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

And when the Idol Festivals come round, these Bacsi 
go to the Prince and say : " Sire, the feast of such a god 
is come " (naming him). " My Lord, you know," the 
enchanters will say, " that this god, when he gets no offer- 
ings, always sends bad weather and spoils our seasons. So 
we pray you to give us such and such a number of 
black-faced sheep " (naming whatever number they please). 
" And we beg also, good my Lord, that we may have such 
a quantity of incense, and such a quantity of lignaloes, 
and" — so much of this, so much of that, and so much 
of t'other, according to their fancy — " that we may perform 
a solemn service and a great sacrifice to our Idols, and 
that so they may be induced to protect us and all that 
is ours." 

The Bacsi say these things to the Barons entrusted 
with the stewardship, who stand round the Great Kaan, 
and these repeat them to the Kaan, and he then orders 
the Barons to give everything that the Bacsi have asked 
for. And when they have got the articles, they go and 
make a great feast in honour of their god, and hold 
great ceremonies of worship with grand illuminations and 
quantities of incense of a variety of odours, which they 
make up from different aromatic spices. And then they 
cook the meat, and set it before the Idols, and sprinkle 
the broth hither and thither. Thus it is that they keep 
their festivals. You must know that each of the Idols 
has a name of his own, and a feast-day, just as our Saints 
have their anniversaries. 

They have also immense Minsters and Abbeys, some 
of them as big as a small town, with more than two 
thousand monks {i.e. after their fashion) in a single abbey. 
These monks dress more decently than the rest of the 
people, and have the head and beard shaven. There are 
some among these Bacsi who are allowed by their rule 
to take wives, and who have plenty of children. 



XL] "IN XANADU." 105 

The glories of Chandu, or Xandu, have been cele- 
brated by many travellers since Marco's time. The 
city and the palace have long since disappeared, but 
one traveller saw the ruins still standing when he 
visited the site, towards the close of the seventeenth 
century. It was just after reading Marco Polo's 
description of the splendours of the court of Kublai 
Khan at Xandu that Coleridge, the poet, fell asleep 
and dreamed the famous poem beginning with these 
lines : 

In Xanadu did Kublai Khan 

A stately pleasure-dome decree, 
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran, 
Through caverns measureless to man, 

Down to a sunless sea. 
So twice five miles of fertile ground 
With walls and towers were girdled round : 
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; 
And here were forests, ancient as the hills, 

Enfolding spots of sunny greenery. 

The Chinese emperors, long after the descendants 
of Kublai Khan had vanished from the Celestial 
Empire, were in the habit of spending the hot weather 
at a very beautiful summer palace, far to the north of 
Peking, which was one of the wonders of the world. 
It was wantonly destroyed by the allied armies of 
France and England, during the war of i860. This 
palace, which was filled with a vast quantity of 
precious objects of art and rare fabrics, was known as 



106 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XI. 

the Yuen-min-Yuen. One of its pavilions may give 
our readers some idea of the appearance, though not 
of the extent, of the Great Khan's summer palace 
at Xandu. 

The " canes " mentioned by Marco as used for 
building material were bamboo, of which- he might 
well say that " it serves also for a great variety of 
other useful purposes." 

An intelligent native of Arakan, who accompanied 
Colonel Yule in Burmah in 1853, used to ask him 
many questions about Europe, and seemed able to 
understand almost everything except the possibility 
of existence in a country without bamboos. These 
bamboo huts are all of bamboo — posts and walls, 
wall-plates and rafters, floor and thatch, and the 
withes that bind them. Indeed, it might almost be 
said that, among the Indo-Chinese nations, the staff of 
life is a bamboo. At any rate, they eat the green 
shoots, and of the canes in various stages of growth 
they make an immense number of articles, a few of 
which are scaffolding and ladders, fishing apparatus, 
oars, masts, yards, sails, cables, spears, arrows, bows, 
oil-cans, cooking-pots, musical instruments, footballs, 
bellows, paper. And in China, to sum up the whole, 
the bamboo maintains order throughout the empire ! 




A PAVILION OF THE SUMMER PALACE. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE TRICKS OF CHINESE CONJURERS — FLYING CUPS AND 
AIR-CLIMBERS. 

*]\ T ARCO gives a full account of the wonderful 

±VX tricks of conjuring which he witnessed at 

the court of Kublai Khan. No doubt he saw, or 

thought he saw the feats which he says were 

done before his eyes. He intended to be strictly 

truthful, and says, with some notion that he may 

be disbelieved, that these things are true, and no lie. 

Other and later travellers have described the same 

tricks, and have given no explanation of them, 

except to say that the spectators were probably 

hypnotised — that is to say, they were made to 

believe that they saw what did not exist. At the 

present day weather-conjuring is practised in China, 

Tatary, and India ; and there are so-called conjurers, 

who pretend to be able to make fogs and clouds 

come and go. 

Not many years since, a Chinese emperor found 

it necessary to forbid his people to offer prayers for 

rain after he had in vain prayed to Heaven for that 

107 



108 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

blessing. He indignantly said : " If I, offering up 
prayer in sincerity, have yet room to fear that it may 
please Heaven to leave my prayer unanswered, it is 
truly intolerable that mere common people, wishing 
for rain, should at their own caprice set up altars 
of earth, and bring together a rabble of Hosgang 
[Buddhist priests] to conjure the spirits to gratify 
their wishes." 

The court jugglers in the time of Kublai Khan 
made it appear to those who looked on as if dishes 
from the table actually flew through the air. One of 
the travellers, who visited the regions of which Marco 
gives us some account, says : " And jugglers cause 
cups of gold to fly through the air and offer them- 
selves to all who list to drink." And Ibn Batuta, a 
Moor who visited Cathay a century after, gives this 
account of a similar incident : 

That same night a juggler, who was one of the Kan's 
slaves, made his appearance, and the Amir said to him : 
"Come and show us some of your marvels." Upon this 
he took a wooden ball, with several holes in it, through 
which long thongs were passed, and (laying hold of one of 
these) slung it into the air. It went up so high that we 
lost sight of it altogether. (It was the hottest season of the 
year, and we were outside in the middle of the palace 
court.) There now remained only a little of the end of a 
thong in the conjurer's hand, and he desired one of the 
boys who assisted him to lay hold of it and mount. He 
did so, climbing by the thong, and we lost sight of him 
also ! The conjurer then called to him three times, but 




A CHINESE CONJURER. 



xii.] "'tis all hocus-pocus." 109 

getting no answer he snatched up a knife as if in a great 
rage, laid hold of the thong, and disappeared also ! By- 
and-by he threw down one of the boy's hands, then a foot 
then the other hand, and then the other foot, then the 
trunk, and last of all the head ! Then he came down 
himself, all puffing and panting, and with his clothes all 
bloody kissed the ground before the Amir, and said some- 
thing to him in Chinese. The Amir gave some order in 
reply, and our friend then took the lad's limbs, laid them 
together in their places, and gave a kick, when, presto ! 
there was the boy, who got up and stood before us ! All 
this astonished me beyond measure, and I had an attack of 
palpitation like that which overcame me once before in 
the presence of the Sultan of India, when he showed me 
something of the same kind. The Kazi Afkharuddin was 
next to me, and quoth he : " Wallah ! — 'tis my opinion 
there has been neither going up nor coming down, neither 
marring nor mending ; 'tis all hocus-pocus ! " 

Mr. Edward Melton, an Anglo-Dutch traveller, 
who visited Java in 1670, gives a long description of 
the tricks of some Chinese conjurers, who performed 
in Batavia while he was there. After describing 
various other feats, he says : " But now I am going to 
relate a thing which surpasses all belief, and which 
I would scarcely venture to insert here if it had not 
been witnessed by thousands before my own eyes." 
He then goes on to describe a trick very much the 
same as those witnessed by Marco Polo and Ibn 
Batuta ; and he adds : " Then straightway we saw 
with these eyes all those limbs creep together again, 
and in short time a whole man, who could at once 



1 10 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XII. 

stand and go just as before, without showing the least 
damage ! " 

Again, we have in the Memoirs of the Emperor 
Jahangir a detail of the wonderful performances of 
seven jugglers from Bengal, who exhibited before 
him. Two of their feats are thus described : 

(i) They produced a man whom they divided limb from 
limb, actually severing his head from the body. They 
scattered these mutilated members along the ground, and 
in this state they lay for some time. They then extended 
a sheet or curtain over the spot, and one of the men, 
putting himself under the sheet, in a few minutes came 
from below, followed by the individual supposed to have 
been cut into joints, in perfect health and condition, 
having received no wound or injury whatever. 

(2) They produced a chain of fifty cubits in length, and 
in my presence threw one end of it towards the sky, where 
it remained as if fastened to something in the air. A dog, 
being then placed at the lower end of the chain, immediately 
ran up it, and, reaching the other end, immediately dis- 
appeared in the air. In the same manner a hog, a panther, 
a lion, and a tiger were successively sent up the chain, 
and all equally disappeared at the upper end. At last they 
took down the chain and put it into a bag, no one ever 
discovering in what way the different animals were made to 
vanish into the air. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HOW THE GREAT EMPEROR WENT TO WAR — KUBLAI KHAN'S 
VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST A KINSMAN — HOW THE 
KHAN REWARDED THE VALOUR OF HIS CAPTAINS. 

YOUNG Marco devoted a great deal of his space 
to accounts of the Great Khan's wars and fight- 
ings, and his hunting. Evidently Marco was himself 
fond of sport, for he describes many kinds of game, 
both birds and beasts ; and it is easy to see that he 
must have hunted somewhat himself, although he 
modestly avoids saying much about his own doings 
while he was in Cathay. His account of one of the 
Great Khan's battles is so vivid that we must quote 
what he has to say of it, as well as what he tells us 
of the Khan's title : 

OF CUBLAY KAAN, THE GREAT KAAN NOW REIGNING, AND 
OF HIS GREAT PUISSANCE. 

Now am I come to the part of our book in which I shall 
tell you of the great and wonderful magnificence of the 
Great Kaan now reigning, by name Cublay Kaan ; Kaan 
being a title which signifieth " The Great Lord of Lords," 
or Emperor. And of a surety he hath good right to such 

in 



112 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

a title, for all men know for a certain truth that he is the 
most potent man, as regards forces and lands and treasure, 
that existeth in the world, or ever hath existed from the 
time of our First Father Adam until this day. All this I 
will make clear to you for truth, in this book of ours, so 
that every one shall be fain to acknowledge that he is 
the greatest Lord that is now in the world, or ever hath 
been. 

CONCERNING THE REVOLT OF NAYAN, WHO WAS UNCLE 
TO THE GREAT KAAN CUBLAY. 

Now this Cublay Kaan is of the right Imperial lineage, 
being descended from Chinghis Kaan, the first sovereign of 
all the Tartars. And he is the sixth Lord in that succession, 
as I have already told you in this book. He came to the 
throne in the year 1256, and the Empire fell to him be- 
cause of his ability and valour and great worth, as was right 
and reason. His brothers, indeed, and other kinsmen 
disputed his claim, but his it remained, both because 
maintained by his great valour, and because it was in law 
and right his, as being directly sprung of the Imperial 
line. 

Up to the year now running, to wit, 1298, he hath 
reigned two-and-forty years, and his age is about eighty-five, 
so that he must have been about forty-three years of age 
when he first came to the throne. Before that time he 
had often been to the wars, and had shown himself a gallant 
soldier and an excellent captain. But after coming to 
the throne he never went to the wars in person save once. 
This befell in the year 1286, and I will tell you how he 
went. 

There was a great Tartar Chief, whose name was Nayan, 
a young man of thirty, Lord over many lands and many 
provinces, and he was Uncle to the Emperor Cublay Kaan 



XIIL] nayan's revolt. 113 

of whom we are speaking. And when he found himself 
in authority, this Nayan waxed proud in the insolence of 
his youth and his great power ; for indeed he could bring 
into the field three hundred thousand horsemen, though all 
the time he was liegeman to his nephew the Great Kaan 
Cublay as was right and reason. Seeing then what great 
power he had, he took it into his head that he would be 
the Great Kaan's vassal no longer; nay, more, he would 
fain wrest his empire from him if he could. So this 
Nayan sent envoys to another Tartar Prince called Caidu, 
also a great and potent Lord, who was a kinsman of his, 
and who was a nephew of the Great Kaan and his lawful 
liegeman also, though he was in rebellion and at bitter 
enmity with his sovereign Lord and Uncle. Now the 
message that Nayan sent was this : That he himself was 
making ready to march against the Great Kaan with all his 
forces (which were great), and he begged Caidu to do like- 
wise from his side, so that by attacking Cublay on two 
sides at once with such great forces they would be able to 
wrest his dominion from him. 

And when Caidu heard the message of Nayan he was 
right glad thereat, and thought the time was come at last 
to gain his object. So he sent back answer that he would 
do as requested, and got ready his host, which mustered a 
good hundred thousand horsemen. 

HOW THE GREAT KAAN MARCHED AGAINST NAYAN. 

When the Great Kaan heard what was afoot, he made 
his preparations in right good heart, like one who feared 
not the issue of an attempt so contrary to justice. Con- 
fident in his own conduct and prowess, he was in no degree 
disturbed, but vowed that he would never wear crown again 
if he brought not those two traitorous and disloyal Tartar 
chiefs to an ill end. So swiftly and secretly were his 

8 



114 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

preparations made that no one knew of them but his Privy 
Council, and all were completed within ten or twelve days. 
In that time he had assembled good three hundred and 
sixty thousand horsemen and one hundred thousand foot- 
men — but a small force indeed for him, and consisting only 
of those that were in the vicinity. For the rest of his vast 
and innumerable forces were too far off to answer so hasty 
a summons, being engaged under orders from him on 
distant expeditions to conquer divers countries and pro- 
vinces. If he had waited to summon all his troops, the 
multitude assembled would have been beyond all belief, 
a multitude such as never was heard of or told of, past 
all counting ! In fact, those three hundred and sixty 
thousand horsemen that he got together consisted merely 
of the falconers and whippers-in that were about the 
Court ! 

And when he had got ready this handful (as it were) of 
his troops, he ordered his astrologers to declare whether 
he should gain the battle and get the better of his enemies. 
After they had made their observations, they told him to go 
on boldly, for he would conquer and gain a glorious victory ; 
whereat he greatly rejoiced. 

So he marched with his army, and after advancing for 
twenty days they arrived at a great plain where Nayan lay 
with all his host, amounting to some four hundred thousand 
horse. Now the Great Kaan's forces arrived so fast and 
so suddenly that the others knew nothing of the matter. 
For the Kaan had caused such strict watch to be made in 
every direction for scouts that every one that appeared was 
instantly captured. Thus Nayan had no warning of his 
coming, and was completely taken by surprise ; insomuch 
that when the Great Kaan's army came up he was asleep. 
So thus you see why it was that the Emperor equipped his 
force with such speed and secrecy. 



XIII.] KUBLAI V. NAYAN. 115 

OF THE BATTLE THAT THE GREAT KAAN FOUGHT WITH 

NAYAN. 

What shall I say about it ? When day had well broken, 
there was the Kaan with all his host upon a hill overlooking 
the plain where Nayan lay in his tent, in all security, with- 
out the slightest thought of any one coming thither to do 
him hurt. In fact, this confidence of his was such that he 
kept no vedettes whether in front or in rear ; for he knew 
nothing of the coming of the Great Kaan, owing to all the 
approaches having been completely occupied as I told you. 
Moreover the place was in a remote wilderness, more than 
thirty marches from the Court, though the Kaan had made 
the distance in twenty, so eager was he to come to battle 
with Nayan. 

And what shall I tell you next ? The Kaan was there 
on the hill, mounted on a great wooden bartizan, which 
was borne by four well-trained elephants, and over him 
was hoisted his standard, so high aloft that it could be seen 
from all sides. His troops were ordered in battles* of 
thirty thousand men apiece ; and a great part of the horse- 
men had each a foot-soldier armed with a lance set on the 
crupper behind him (for it was thus that the footmen were 
disposed of) ; and the whole plain seemed to be covered 
with his forces. So it was thus that the Great Kaan's army 
was arrayed for battle. 

When Nayan and his people saw what happened, they 
were sorely confounded, and rushed in haste to arms. 
Nevertheless they made them ready in good style and 
formed their troops in an orderly manner. And when all 
were in battle-array on both sides as I have told you, and 
nothing remained but to fall to blows, then might you have 
heard a sound arise of many instruments of various music, 

* Battalions. 



Il6 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

and of the voices of the whole of the two hosts loudly 
singing. For this is a custom of the Tartars, that before 
they join battle they all unite in singing and playing on 
a certain two-stringed instrument of theirs, a thing right 
pleasant to hear. And so they continue in their array of 
battle, singing and playing in this pleasing manner, until 
the great Naccara of the Prince is heard to sound. As soon 
as that begins to sound the fight also begins on both sides ; 
and in no case before the Prince's Naccara sounds dare any 
commence fighting. 

So then, as they were thus singing and playing, though 
ordered and ready for battle, the great Naccara of the 
Great Kaan began to sound. And that of Nayan also 
began to sound. And thenceforward the din of battle 
began to be heard loudly from this side and from that. 
And they rushed to work so doughtily with their bows 
and their maces, with their lances and swords, and with 
the arblasts * of the footmen, that it was a wondrous sight 
to see. Now might you behold such flights of arrows 
from this side and from that, that the whole heaven was 
canopied with them and they fell like rain. Now might 
you see on this side and on that full many a cavalier and 
man-at-arms fall slain, insomuch that the whole field seemed 
covered with them. For fierce and furious was the battle, 
and quarter there was none given. 

But why should I make a long story of it ? You must 
know that it was the most parlous and fierce and fearful 
battle that ever has been fought in our day. Nor have 
there ever been such forces in the field in actual fight, 
especially of horsemen, as were then engaged; for, taking 
both sides, there were not fewer than seven hundred and 
sixty thousand horsemen — a mighty force ! — and that with- 
out reckoning the footmen, who were also very numerous. 

* Cross-bows. 



XIII.] NAYAN'S DEFEAT AND DEATH. 117 

The battle endured with various fortune on this side and 
on that from morning till noon. But at the last, by God's 
pleasure and the right that was on his side, the Great 
Kaan had the victory, and Nayan lost the battle and was 
utterly routed. For the army of the Great Kaan performed 
such feats of arms that Nayan and his host could stand 
against them no longer, so they turned and fled. But this 
availed nothing for Nayan ; for he and all the Barons with 
him were taken prisoners, and had to surrender to the 
Kaan with all their arms. 

Now you must know that Nayan was a baptised 
Christian, and bore the Cross on his banner; but this 
naught availed him, seeing how grievously he had done 
amiss in rebelling against his Lord. For he was the Great 
Kaan's liegeman, and was bound to hold his lands of him 
like all his ancestors before him. 

HOW THE GREAT KAAN CAUSED NAYAN TO BE PUT TO 
DEATH. 

And when the Great Kaan learned that Nayan was taken 
right glad was he, and commanded that he should be put 
to death straightway and in secret. 

And when the Great Kaan had gained this battle, as you 
have heard, all the Barons and people of Nayan's provinces 
renewed their fealty to the Kaan. Now these provinces 
that had been under the Lordship of Nayan were four in 
number, to wit : the first called Chorcha ; the second 
Cauly ; the third Barscol ; the fourth Sikintinju. Of' all 
these four great provinces had Nayan been Lord ; it was a 
very great dominion. 

And after the Great Kaan had conquered Nayan, as you 
have heard, it came to pass that the different kinds of 
people who were present, Saracens and Idolaters and Jews, 
and many others that believed not in God, did gibe those 



Il8 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

that were Christians because of the Cross that Nayan had 
borne on his standard, and that so grievously that there 
was no bearing it. Thus they would say to the'Christians : 
"See now what precious help this Cross of yours hath 
rendered Nayan, who was a Christian and a worshipper 
thereof/' And such a din arose about the matter that it 
reached the Great Kaan's own ears. When it did so, he 
sharply rebuked those who cast these gibes at the Christians; 
and he also bade the Christians be of good heart, " for if 
the Cross had rendered no help to Nayan, in that It had 
done right well; nor could that which was good, as It 
was, have done otherwise; for Nayan was a disloyal and 
traitorous Rebel against his Lord, and well deserved that 
which had befallen him. Wherefore the Cross of your 
God did well in that It gave him no help against the right." 
And this he said so loud that everybody heard him. The 
Christians then replied to the Great Kaan : " Great King, 
you say the truth indeed, for our Cross can render no one 
help in wrong-doing ; and therefore it was that It aided not 
Nayan, who was guilty of crime and disloyalty, for It would 
take no part in his evil deeds." 

And so thenceforward no more was heard of the floutings 
of the unbelievers against the Christians; for they heard 
very well what the Sovereign said to the latter about the 
Cross on Nayan's banner, and its giving him no help. 

Marco makes one or two errors in his account of 
the Great Khan's warlike doings. This was not the 
only time that the Emperor went to war in person ; 
for the Chinese annalists tell of at least one other 
occasion when he led his army against his brother 
and rival, Arikbuga, in 1261 ; and in his old age he 
took the field against Kaidu, a rebel in the North. 



XIII.] 



WAR-DRUMS. 



119 



Nayan, whose defeat and tragic death are so vividly 
described by Marco, was not the uncle of Kublai 
Khan ; he was no more than a cousin many times 
removed. 

A " bartizan " was a sort of tower, made of timber, 
and used for purposes of defence or attack. It would 
appear that the Great Khan went to war in person, 




THE GREAT NACCARAS. 



riding in a great wooden tower, which was carried on 
the backs of four elephants. On an elephant was 
also carried the big war-drum which Polo calls a 
naccara. This was an immense kettle-drum shaped 
like a brass cauldron, tapering to the bottom and 
covered with dried buffalo hide, which had been 
scraped thin and tightly stretched for the drum-head. 
These drums were sometimes three or four feet across 



120 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

at the top, and the noise from them when beaten 
was something terrific. Two monster drums would 
be slung on the back of an elephant, and the drummer, 
seated between the two, would beat first one and 
then another, when the signal was to be given to the 
fighting-men. 

Imagine four hundred and sixty thousand soldiers, 
infantry and cavalry, marching to battle with the 
gigantic drums sounding, flags flying, troops shouting, ; 
and over all the war-banner of the great Emperor, 
streaming from his castle borne on the backs of four 
elephants. Truly that was a " parlous and fierce 
and fearful battle," the like of which we have never 
seen in our day. 

Marco does not attempt to conceal his great admira- 
tion for the Khan, and takes pleasure in telling of the 
grand monarch's liberality and thoughtfulness for his 
captains and his people. Here is a characteristic 
chapter from our history: 

HOW THE KAAN REWARDED THE VALOUR OF HIS 
CAPTAINS. 

So we will have done with this matter of Nayan, and go 
on with our account of the great state of the Great Kaan. 

We have already told you of his lineage and of his age ; 
but now I must tell you what he did after his return, in 
regard to those Barons who had behaved well in the battle. 
Him who was before captain of one hundred he made 
captain of one thousand ; and him who was captain of 
one thousand men he made to be captain of ten thousand, 



XIII.] TABLETS OF AUTHORITY. 121 

advancing every man according to his deserts and to his 
previous rank. Besides that, he also made them presents 
of fine silver plate and other rich appointments ; gave them 
Tablets of Authority of a higher degree than they held 
before ; and bestowed upon them fine jewels of gold and 
silver, and pearls and precious stones ; insomuch that the 
amount that fell to each of them was something astonishing. 
And yet 'twas not so much as they had deserved ; for never 
were men seen who did such feats of arms for the love 
and honour of their Lord as these had done on that day 
of the battle. 

Now those Tablets of Authority, of which I have spoken, 
are ordered in this way : The officer who is a captain of 
one hundred hath a tablet of silver ; the captain of one 
thousand hath a tablet of gold or silver-gilt ; the commander 
of ten thousand hath a tablet of gold with a lion's head on 
it. And I will tell you the weight of the different tablets, 
and what they denote. The tablets of the captains of one 
hundred and one thousand weigh each of them one hundred 
and twenty saggi; and the tablet with the lion's head en- 
graven on it, which is that of the commander of ten 
thousand, weighs two hundred and twenty saggi. And on 
each of the tablets is inscribed a device, which runs : " By 
the strength of the great God, and of the great grace which 
He hath accorded to our Emperor, may the name of the Kaan 
be blessed ; and let all such as will not obey him be slain 
and be destroyed," And I tell you besides that all who 
hold these tablets likewise receive warrants in writing, 
declaring all their powers and privileges. 

I should mention too that an officer who holds the chief 
command of one hundred thousand men, or who is general- 
in-chief of a great host, is entitled to a tablet that weighs 
three hundred saggi. It has an inscription thereon to the 
same purport that I have told you already, and below the 
inscription there is the figure of a lion, and below the lion 



122 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the sun and moon. They have warrants also of their high 
rank, command, and power. Every one, moreover, who 
holds a tablet of this exalted degree is entitled, whenever 
he goes abroad, to have a little golden canopy, such as is 
called an umbrella, carried on a spear over his head in 
token of his high command. And whenever he sits, he sits 
in a silver chair. 

To certain very great lords also there is given a tablet 
with gerfalcons on it ; this is only to the very greatest of 
the Kaan's Barons, and it confers on them his own full 
power and authority ; so that if one of those chiefs wishes 
to send a messenger anywhither, he can seize the horses 
of any man, be he even a king, and any other chattels at 
his pleasure. 

The tablets of gold and silver, given to special 
messengers and officers of the Great Khan, are 
frequently mentioned in Marco Polo's book. You 
will remember that, when the Khan sent the Polo 
brothers to their own country, as narrated in the 
first chapter of this book, he gave them a tablet of 
gold, on which was engraven an inscription which 
would procure for them all things needful for their 
journey through his dominions. The smallest of 
the tablets mentioned by Marco is said to weigh 
one hundred and twenty saggi. The saggio was a 
Venetian weight : as used by Polo, it was reckoned 
to be equal to about seventy-four grains troy ; and 
this would indicate that the smallest of the golden 
tablets weighed eighteen and a half ounces troy. 

The reader will notice that Polo refers to the 



XIII.] UMBRELLAS. 1 23 

umbrella as if it were carried only by the favoured 
ones, who had won the special mark of approbation 
of their Sovereign. The history of the useful article, 
now so generally carried, wherever, in civilised coun- 
tries, the rain or the sun is likely to interfere with 
the comfort of men and women, is of very ancient 
origin : as suggested by the text above quoted, 
it was, at first, probably carried only by great 
personages. Among some of the sculptures of old 
Egypt may be seen the effigies of royal princesses 
protected from the sun by umbrellas. In the 
Middle Ages, the umbrella was a large, cumbrous 
affair, used in Europe chiefly by the high and 
mighty dignitaries of the Church. But in Oriental 
countries, the thing was, and still is, employed as a 
badge of distinction, being of elaborate and costly 
workmanship, and richly decorated. Umbrellas of 
inexpensive materials for every-day use were not 
common in England and America until very recent 
times. The name of Jonas Hanway will always be 
connected with this use of the umbrella. Returning 
to England from Persia in delicate health, Mr. 
Hanway (who died in 1786) shielded himself from 
the sun by one of the outlandish " canopies," which 
provoked the mirth of wayfarers and excited the 
wrath of the drivers of hackney-coaches and the 
bearers of sedan-chairs, who thought they saw in 
this contrivance a dangerous rival to their vehicles. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BEAUTIFUL PALACE OF KUBLAI KHAN — HOW THE EMPEROR 
SPENT HIS TIME — CONCERNING THE MIGHTY CITY OF 
CAMBALUC — THE MANNER OF SERVING DINNER IN THE 
GREAT KHAN'S PALACE — ANCIENT AND MODERN PEKING — 
COSTLY ROBES. 

HP* HE personal appearance of the Great Khan is 
**■ thus described by Marco : " He is of good 
stature, neither tall nor short, but of middle height. 
He has a becoming amount of flesh, and is very 
shapely in all his limbs. His complexion is white 
and red, the eyes black and fine, the nose well 
formed and well set on." But the portrait of Kublai 
Khan, drawn by a Chinese artist, does not exactly 
correspond with the pen portrait given here by Marco. 
This drawing leads us to infer that the Emperor was 
rather corpulent ; moreover, we know, from Marco's 
own narrative, that he was subject to gout in his later 
life. After explaining that the family of the Great 
Khan are variously named and provided for, Marco 
goes on to tell of the glories of the imperial palace 
at Cambaluc, otherwise known as Peking : 

You must know that for three months of the year, to 
124 



Ch. XIV.] THE KHAN'S WAR-HARNESS. 1 25 

wit, December, January, and February, the Great Kaan 
resides in the capital city of Cathay, which is called Cam- 
baluc, and which is at the north-eastern extremity of the 
country. In that city stands his Great Palace, and now I 
will tell you what it is like. 

It is enclosed all round by a great wall forming a square, 
each side of which is a mile in length ; that is to say, the 
whole compass thereof is four miles. It is also very thick 
and a good ten paces in height, whitewashed and loop-holed 
all round. At each angle of the wall there is a very fine 
and rich palace in which the war-harness of the Emperor 
is kept, such as bows and quivers, saddles and bridles, 
and bowstrings, and everything needful for an army. Also 
midway between every two of these Corner Palaces there is 
another of the like, so that taking the whole compass of the 
enclosure you find eight vast Palaces stored with the Great 
King's harness of war. And you must understand that each 
Palace is assigned to only one kind of article; thus, one 
is stored with bows, a second with saddles, a third with 
bridles, and so on in succession right round. 

The great wall has five gates on its southern face, the 
middle one being the great gate which is never opened 
on any occasion except when the Great Kaan himself 
goes forth or enters. Close on either side of this great 
gate is a smaller one by which all other people pass ; and 
then towards each angle is another great gate, also open 
to people in general; so that on that side there are five 
gates in all. 

Inside of this wall there is a second, enclosing a space 
that is somewhat greater in length than in breadth. This 
enclosure also has eight Palaces corresponding to those of 
the outer wall, and stored like them with the King's harness 
of war. This wall also hath five gates on the southern face, 
corresponding to those in the outer wall, and hath one gate 
on each of the other faces as the outer wall hath also. In 



126 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the middle of the second enclosure is the King's Great 
Palace, and I will tell you what it is like. 

You must know that it is the greatest Palace that ever 
was. Toward the north it is in contact with the outer 
wall, whilst toward the south there is a vacant space which 
the Barons and the soldiers are constantly traversing. The 
Palace itself hath no upper storey, but is all on the ground 
floor, only the basement is raised some ten palms above 
the surrounding soil, and this elevation is retained by 
a wall of marble raised to the level of the pavement, two 
paces in width, and projecting beyond the base of the 
Palace so as to form a kind of terrace-walk, by which 
people can pass round the building, and which is exposed 
to view, whilst on the outer edge of the wall there is a very 
fine pillared balustrade; and up to this the people are 
allowed to come. The roof is very lofty, and the walls of the 
Palace are all covered with gold and silver. They are also 
adorned with representations of dragons, sculptured and 
gilt, beasts and birds, knights and idols, and sundry other 
subjects. And on the ceiling, too, you see nothing but 
gold and silver and painting. On each of the four sides 
there is a great marble staircase leading to the top of the 
marble wall, and forming the approach to the Palace. 

The Hall of the Palace is so large that it could easily dine 
six thousand people; and it is quite a marvel to see how 
many rooms there are besides. The building is altogether so 
vast, so rich, and so beautiful, that no man on earth could 
design anything superior to it. The outside of the roof 
also is all coloured with vermilion and yellow and green 
and blue and other hues, which are fixed with a varnish so 
fine and exquisite that they shine like crystal, and lend 
a resplendent lustre to the Palace as seen for a great way 
round. This roof is made, too, with such strength and 
solidity that it is fit to last for ever. 

On the interior side of the Palace are large buildings 



XIV.] AN EVERGREEN HOBBY. 1 27 

with halls and chambers, where the Emperor's private 
property is placed, such as his treasures of gold, silver, 
gems, pearls, and gold plate, and in which reside the ladies 
of the Court. 

Between the two walls of the enclosure which I have 
described there are fine parks and beautiful trees bearing 
a variety of fruits. There are beasts also of sundry kinds, 
such as white stags and fallow deer, gazelles and roebucks, 
and fine squirrels of various sorts, with numbers also of the 
animal that gives the musk, and all manner of other beauti- 
ful creatures, insomuch that the whole place is full of them, 
and no spot remains void except where there is traffic of 
people going and coming. The parks are covered with 
abundant grass ; and the roads through them being all 
paved and raised two cubits above the surface, they never 
become muddy, nor does the rain lodge on them, but flows 
off into the meadows, quickening the soil and producing 
that abundance of herbage. 

From that corner of the enclosure which is towards the 
north-west there extends a fine lake, containing fish of 
different kinds, which the Emperor hath caused to be put 
in there, so that whenever he desires any he can have them 
at his pleasure. A river enters this lake and issues from it, 
but there is a grating of iron or brass put up so that the fish 
cannot escape in that way. 

Moreover, on the north side of the Palace, about a bow- 
shot off, there is a hill which has been made by art from 
the earth dug out of the lake ; it is a good hundred paces 
in height and a mile in compass. This hill is entirely 
covered with trees that never lose their leaves, but remain 
ever green. And I assure you that wherever a beautiful 
tree may exist, and the Emperor gets news of it, he sends 
for it, and has it transported bodily with all its roots and the 
earth attached to them, and planted on that hill of his. No 
matter how big the tree may be, he gets it carried by his 



128 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

elephants ; and in this way he has got together the most 
beautiful collection of trees in all the world. And he has 
also caused the whole hill to be covered with the ore of 
azure, which is very green. And thus not only are the 
trees all green, but the hill itself is all green likewise ; 
and there is nothing to be seen on it that is not green ; 
and hence it is called the Green Mount; and in good 
sooth 'tis named well. 

On the top of the hill again there is a fine big palace 
which is all green inside and out ; and thus the hill, and 
the trees, and the palace form together a charming spec- 
tacle; and it is marvellous to see their uniformity of 
colour ! Everybody who sees them is delighted. And 
the Great Kaan has caused this beautiful prospect to be 
formed for the comfort and solace and delectation of his 
heart. 

You must know that beside the Palace that we have 
been describing, i.e. the Great Palace, the Emperor has 
caused another to be built just like his own in every 
respect, and this he hath done for his son when he shall 
reign and be Emperor after him. Hence it is made just 
in the same fashion and of the same size, so that every- 
thing can be carried on in the same manner after his own 
death. It stands on the other side of the lake from the 
Great Kaan's Palace, and there is a bridge crossing the 
water from one to the other. The Prince in question 
holds now a Seal of Empire, but not with such complete 
authority as the Great Kaan, who remains supreme as long 
as he lives. 

Now I am going to tell you of the Chief City of Cathay, 
in which these Palaces stand; and why it was built, 
and how. 

Before we take up Marco's description of the capital 
of Cathay, or China, let us look at Peking, to call 



XIV.] MODERN PEKING. 1 29 

by its modern name Kublai Khan's city. We shall 
better understand Marco's pages if we know something 
of the capital as it exists to-day ; and it is worthy of 
remark that the accuracy of the young Venetian's 
account is well established by comparing it with what 
we know of modern Peking. 

The city is one of the oldest in the world, but 
was not made the capital until Kublai Khan, some- 
where about 1282, fixed his court there. Under the 
Mongols the name of Peking was Khan-palik^ or City 
of the Khan ; and this title was easily converted into 
Cambaluc, by which name it is known in the accounts 
of those times. Peking is now divided into two 
parts ; the northern portion is the Tatar city, and 
contains about twelve square miles ; in this are the 
palaces, government buildings, and military barracks. 
The southern part is the Chinese city, and is more 
populous than the Tatar, less of its space being 
taken up by gardens and public buildings. The 
population is estimated at different figures ; but two 
millions appears to be a fair estimate. 

A wall separates the Tatar from the Chinese city, 
and a wall of varying height surrounds the whole ; that 
of the Tatar section being about fifty feet high, and 
that round the Chinese section some thirty feet high. 
These walls are of brick and stone filled in with earth 
and paved on the top with slabs of stone, affording a 
promenade twelve feet wide. There are sixteen gates 

o 



I30 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

in all, and each gateway is fortified with towers of 
stone, other towers being fixed at intervals of about 
sixty yards all round the walls. These towers pro- 
ject fifty feet from the outer side of the walls, and 
those at the gateways have in front of them a fortifi- 
cation of a semicircular shape, so that the gate must 
be entered from the side, and not from the front 

The Tatar city is divided into three enclosures, each 
being surrounded with its own wall, and each inside 
of another. The innermost of these is the Prohibited 
City, and contains the imperial palaces and offices. 
Its circumference is nearly two miles ; the wall is 
covered with imperial-yellow tiles, which look brilliant 
when seen from a distance. The enclosure next out- 
side of this is occupied by the government offices, 
and by the army appointed to keep guard over the 
Emperor and his family. The next outside of this is 
the outermost of all, and consists of dwelling-houses 
and shops. 

Although Polo begins his account of the chief city 
of Cathay with some flourish, he dismisses it, after he 
has described the palaces and pleasure-grounds, with- 
out many words. This is what he has to say of the 
capital of the empire : 

CONCERNING THE CITY OF CAMBALUC. 

Now there was on that spot in old times a great and 
noble city called Cambaluc, which is as much as to say 
in our tongue "The City of the Emperor." But the 




'IIP 

; 1 Witifc^V' TBI 



Spl 




XIV.] ANCIENT PEKING. 131 

Great Kaan was informed by his astrologers that this 
city would prove rebellious, and raise great disorders 
against his imperial authority. So he caused the present 
city to be built close beside the old one, with only a river 
between them. And he caused the people of the old 
city to be removed to the new town that he had founded ; 
and this he called Taidu. However, he allowed a portion 
of the people whom he did not suspect to remain in the 
old city, because the new one would not hold the whole 
of them, big as it is. 

As regards the size of this new city, you must know 
that it has a compass of twenty-four miles, for each side of 
it hath a length of six miles, and it is four-square. And 
it is all walled round with walls of earth, which have a 
thickness of full ten paces at the bottom, and a height 
of more than ten paces ; but they are not so thick at 
the top, for they diminish in thickness as they rise, so 
at top they are only about three paces thick. And they 
are provided throughout with loop-holed battlements, which 
are all whitewashed. 

There are twelve gates, and over each gate there is a 
great and handsome palace, so that there are on each 
side of the square three gates and five palaces ; for (I 
ought to mention) there is at each angle also a great 
and handsome palace. In those palaces are vast halls 
in which are kept the arms of the city garrison. 

The streets are so straight and wide that you can see 
right along them from end to end and from one gate to 
the other. And up and down the city there are beautiful 
palaces, and many and fine hostelries, and fine houses 
in great numbers. All the plots of ground on which the 
houses of the city are built are four-square and laid out 
in straight lines, and the plots being occupied by great 
and spacious palaces, with courts and gardens of pro- 
portionate size. All these plots are assigned to different 



132 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

heads of families. Each square plot is encompassed by 
handsome streets for traffic; and thus the whole city is 
arranged in squares just like a chess-board, and disposed 
in a manner so perfect and masterly that it is impossible 
to give a description that should do it justice. 

Moreover, in the middle of the city there is a great 
clock —that is to say, a bell, which is struck at night. And 
after it has struck three times no one must go out in the 
city, unless it be for the needs of a woman in labour or 
of the sick. And those who go about on such errands 
are bound to carry lanterns with them. Moreover, the 
established guard at each gate of the city is one thousand 
armed men ; not that you are to imagine this guard is 
kept up for fear of any attack, but only as a guard of 
honour for the Sovereign, who resides there, and to prevent 
thieves from doing mischief in the town. 



The " great palaces " which Marco saw over the 
gates and at the angles of the walls still exist, 
although they are now used as defences for the gates 
rather than as palaces. The public clock-towers 
were probably provided with water-clocks to indicate 
the hour ; these were copper basins set one above the 
other in brickwork, like a series of steps ; and the 
water flowing downward from one basin to another 
marked by its fall the flight of time. The hour was 
struck by the watchman on a large gong suspended 
in the clock-tower. 

That the Great Khan maintained great state in this 
wonderful city, and whenever he went abroad, can 
well be imagined. Marco Polo tells of the twelve 



XIV.] HOW THE KHAN DINES. 1 33 

thousand horsemen, or " Knights devoted to their 
Lord," who were continually on guard, three thousand 
being detailed to stand guard for three days and 
nights, each three thousand being then relieved by 
another body of like number, and so on until the 
entire army of knights had been on duty. Concern- 
ing the great doings in the banquet-halls of the 
mighty one, Polo has this glowing description : 

THE FASHION OF THE GREAT KAAN's TABLE AT HIS 
HIGH FEASTS. 

And when the Great Kaan sits at table on any great 
Court occasion it is in this fashion : His table is elevated a 
good deal above the others, and he sits at the north end of 
the hall, looking towards the south, with his chief wife 
beside him on the left. On his right sit his sons and his 
nephews and other kinsmen of the Blood Imperial, but 
lower, so that their heads are on a level with the Emperor's 
feet. And then the other Barons sit at other tables lower 
still. So also with the women ; for all the wives of the 
Lord's sons, and of his nephews and other kinsmen, sit at 
the lower table to his right ; and below them again the 
ladies of the other Barons and Knights, each in the place 
assigned by the Lord's orders. The tables are so disposed 
that the Emperor can see the whole of them from end to 
end, many as they are. Further, you are not to suppose 
that everybody sits at table ; on the contrary, the greater 
part of the soldiers and their officers sit at their meal in the 
hall on the carpets. Outside the hall will be found more 
than forty thousand people ; for there is a great concourse 
of folk bringing presents to the Lord, or come from foreign 
countries with curiosities. 



134 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

In a certain part of the hall near where the Great Kaan 
holds his table, there is set a large and very beautiful piece 
of workmanship in the form of a square coffer, or buffet, 
about three paces each way, exquisitely wrought with figures 
of animals, finely carved and gilt. The middle is hollow, 
and in it stands a great vessel of pure gold, holding as 
much as an ordinary butt ; and at each corner of the great 
vessel is one of smaller size, of the capacity of a firkin, and 
from the former the wine or beverage flavoured with fine 
and costly spices is drawn off into the latter. And on the 
buffet aforesaid are set all the Lord's drinking vessels, 
among which are certain pitchers of the finest gold, which 
are called verniques^ and are big enough to hold drink for 
eight or ten persons. And one of these is put between 
every two persons, besides a couple of golden cups with 
handles, so that every man helps himself from the pitcher 
that stands between him and his neighbour. And the 
ladies are supplied in the same way. The value of these 
pitchers and cups is something immense ; in fact, the Great 
Kaan has such a quantity of this kind of plate, and of gold 
and silver in other shapes, as no one ever before saw or 
heard tell of or could believe. 

There are certain Barons specially deputed to see that 
foreigners, who do not know the customs of the Court, are 
provided with places suited to their rank ; and these Barons 
are continually moving to and fro in the hall, looking to the 
wants of the guests at table, and causing the servants to 
supply them promptly with wine, milk, meat, or whatever 
they lack. At every door of the hall (or, indeed, wherever 
the Emperor may be) there stand a couple of big men like 
giants, one on each side, armed with staves. Their business 
is to see that no one steps upon the threshold in entering, 
and if this does happen they strip the offender of his 
clothes, and he must pay a forfeit to have them back again ; 
or in lieu of taking his clothes they give him a certain 



XIV.] WHEN THE KHAN DRINKS. 1 35 

number of blows. If they are foreigners ignorant of the 
order, then there are Barons appointed to introduce them, 
and explain it to them. They think, in fact, that it brings 
bad luck if any one touches the threshold. 

And you must know that those who wait upon the Great 
Kaan with his dishes and his drink are some of the great 
Barons. They have the mouth and nose muffled with fine 
napkins of silk and gold, so that no breath nor odour from 
their persons should taint the dish or the goblet presented 
to the Lord. And when the Emperor is going to drink, all 
the musical instruments, of which he has vast store of every 
kind, begin to play. And when he takes the cup, all the 
Barons and the rest of the company drop on their knees 
and make the deepest obeisance before him, and then the 
Emperor doth drink. But each time that he does so the 
whole ceremony is repeated. 

I will say naught about the dishes, as you may easily con- 
ceive that there is a great plenty of every possible kind. But 
you should know that in every case where a Baron or a Knight 
dines at those tables their wives also dine there with the 
other ladies. And when all have dined and the tables have 
been removed, then come in a great number of players and 
jugglers, adepts at all sorts of wonderful feats, and perform 
before the Emperor and the rest of the company, creating 
great diversion and mirth, so that everybody is full of 
laughter and enjoyment. And when the performance is 
over, the company breaks up and every one goes to his 
quarters. 



The modern Chinese practice, which may have 
been that of the Mongols of Polo's time, is to seat at 
small tables (two guests at each table) any large 
company. In the banqueting-hall of the Great Khan 



136 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

there were, probably, many rows of these small tables, 
among which the barons, or masters of ceremonies, 
moved, looking after the comfort of the guests. 
When the feast was over, these tables could be 
easily removed, for the better enjoyment of the 
sports that were to follow. 

The Chinese of our day hold to certain observances 
on entering a doorway ; and among the tribes roving 
over Mongolia it is not only bad manners, but even 
sinful, to touch the ropes of a tent, which are 
regarded as representing the threshold. In a 
Mahommedan account of an embassy to the court 
of one of the Tatar potentates, it is recorded that it 
was forbidden to tread on the threshold of the palace. 
The reason for this prohibition is not apparent ; but 
travellers say that, among the Mongols of the present 
day, the feeling about visitors meddling with the 
tent-ropes is so strong, that those, who have, even 
in ignorance, transgressed the unwritten rule, are 
thenceforth excluded from the hospitality of the 
offended family. 

Marco is evidently astonished (and so are we) at 
the Khan's liberality to his barons in the matter of 
clothes ; truly it is, as he says, " a huge business." 
Here is the description : 



Now you must know that the Great Kaan hath set apart 
twelve thousand of his men, who are distinguished by the 



XIV.] HOW THE BARONS ARE CLOTHED. 1 37 

name of Keshican, as I have told you before ; and on each 
of these twelve thousand Barons he bestows thirteen 
changes of raiment, which are all different from one 
another : I mean that in one set the twelve thousand are 
all of one colour; the next twelve thousand of another 
colour, and so on ; so that they are of thirteen different 
colours. These robes are garnished with gems and pearls 
and other precious things in a very rich and costly manner. 
And along with each of these changes of raiment, i.e. 
thirteen times in the year, he bestows on each of those 
twelve thousand Barons a fine golden girdle of great rich- 
ness and value, and likewise a pair of boots of Camut, that 
is to say of Borgal, curiously wrought with silver thread ; 
insomuch that when they are clothed in these dresses every 
man of them looks like a king ! And there is an estab- 
lished order as to which dress is to be worn at each of 
those thirteen feasts. The Emperor himself also has his 
thirteen suits corresponding to those of his Barons; in 
colour, I mean (though his are grander, richer, and costlier), 
so that he is always arrayed in the same colour as his 
Barons, who are, as it were, his comrades. And you may 
see that all this costs an amount which it is scarcely 
possible to calculate. 

Now I have told you of the thirteen changes of raiment 
received from the Prince by those twelve thousand Barons, 
amounting in all to one hundred and fifty-six thousand 
suits of so great cost and value, to say nothing of the 
girdles and the boots, which are also worth a great sum of 
money. All this the Great Lord hath ordered, that he 
may attach the more of grandeur and dignity to his 
festivals. 

And now I must mention another thing that I had for- 
gotten, but which you will be astonished to learn from this 
Book. You must know that on the Feast Day a great Lion 
is led to the Emperor's presence, and as soon as it sees him 



I38 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XIV. 

it lies down before him with every sign of the greatest 
veneration, as if it acknowledged him for its lord ; and it 
remains there lying before him, and entirely unchained. 
Truly this must seem a strange story to those who have 
not seen the thing ! 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE KHAN AS A MIGHTY HUNTER — HIS FALCONERS, HAWKS. 
AND HUNTING GEAR — RIDING IN A CHAMBER ON ELEPHANTS' 
BACKS — RIGHT ROYAL SPORT. 

WE have already seen that Marco had a keen 
taste for sport, and it is noticeable that he 
describes the hunting-scenes of the Khan with great 
gusto, as if he had been present at some of them, and 
had a good time in the field with the imperial sports- 
man. This is what he has to say about the animals 
trained to hunt for the Great Khan : 

The Emperor hath numbers of leopards trained to the 
chase, and hath also a great many lynxes taught in like 
manner to catch game, and which afford excellent sport. 
He hath also several great Lions, bigger than those of 
Babylonia, beasts whose skins are coloured in the most 
beautiful way, being striped all along the sides with black, 
red, and white. These are trained to catch boars and wild 
cattle, bears, wild asses, stags, and other great or fierce 
beasts. And 'tis a rare sight, I can tell you, to see those 
Lions giving chase to such beasts as I have mentioned ! 
When they are to be so employed, the Lions are taken out 
in a covered cart, and every Lion has a little doggie with 
him. They are obliged to approach the game against the 

139 



140 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

wind, otherwise the animals would scent the approach of 
the Lion and be off. 

There are also a great number of eagles, all broken to 
catch wolves, foxes, deer, and wild goats, and they do catch 
them in great numbers. But those especially that are 
trained to wolf-catching are very large and powerful birds, ! 
and no wolf is able to get away from them. 

This is an accurate description of the manner of 
hunting still in vogue in some parts of India among 
the native princes. The " lion," to which Marco 
refers as being trained to hunt, is the cheetah, a 
species of leopard, which is carried to the hunting- 
field in a box, with its eyes covered by a hood. 
jWhen loosed in the field, the cheetah will bound off 
in pursuit of any game which may be in sight, and 
seldom fails to bring it down. Hawking was a 
fashionable diversion in Europe during Marco's time, 
as well as in Cathay. Kublai Khan had hawks of 
various kinds taught to fly at feathered game ; and 
his trained eagles pursued larger game, such as wolves 
and foxes. Here is a detailed account of the Great 
Khan's hunting expeditions : 

The Emperor hath two Barons who are own brothers, 
one called Baian, and the other Mingan ; and these two are 
styled Chinuchi (or Cunichi), which is as much as to say, 
"The Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs." Each of these 
brothers hath ten thousand men under his orders, each 
body of ten thousand being dressed alike, the one in red 
and the other in blue; and whenever they accompany the 
Kaan to the chase they wear this livery, in order to be 



^V* 







THE EAGLE AND ITS VICTIM. 



XV.J A MIGHTY HUNT. 141 

recognised. Out of each body of ten thousand there are 
two thousand men who are each in charge of one or more 
great mastiffs, so that the whole number of these is very 
large. And when the Prince goes a-hunting, one of those 
Barons, with his ten thousand men and something like 
five thousand dogs, goes towards the right, whilst the 
other goes towards the left with his party in like manner. 
They move along, all abreast of one another, so that the 
whole line extends over a full day's journey, and no animal 
can escape them. Truly it is a glorious sight to see the 
working of the dogs and the huntsmen on such an occasion ! 
And as the Kaan rides a-fowling across the plains, you will 
see these big hounds coming tearing up, one pack after 
a bear, another pack after a stag, or some other beast, as it 
may hap, and running the game down now on this side and 
now on that, so that it is really a most delightful sport and 
spectacle. 

The Two Brothers I have mentioned are bound by the 
tenure of their office to supply the Kaan's Court from 
October to the end of March with one thousand head of 
game daily, whether of beasts or birds, and not counting 
quails; and also with fish to the best of their ability, 
allowing fish enough for three persons to reckon as equal 
to one head of game. 

Now I have told you of the Masters of the Hounds and 
all about them, and next will I tell you how the Kaan goes 
off on an expedition for the space of three months. 

After he has stopped at his capital city those three 
months that I mentioned, to wit, December, January, 
February, he starts off on the 1st day of March, and travels 
southward toward the Ocean Sea, a journey of two days. 
He takes with him full ten thousand falconers, and some 
five hundred gerfalcons, besides peregrines, sakers, and other 
hawks in great numbers ; and goshawks also to fly at the 
water-fowl. But do not suppose that he keeps all these 



142 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

together by him ; they are distributed about, hither and 
thither, one hundred together, or two hundred at the utmost, 
as he thinks proper. But they are always fowling as they 
advance, and the most part of the quarry taken is carried 
to the Emperor. And let me tell you when he goes thus 
a- fowling with his gerfalcons and other hawks, he is attended 
by full ten thousand men, who are disposed in couples ; and 
these are called Toscaol, which is as much as to say, 
"Watchers." And the name describes their business. 
They are posted from spot to spot, always in couples, and 
thus they cover a great deal of ground ! Every man of 
them is provided with a whistle and a hood, so as to be able 
to call in a hawk and hold it in hand. And when the 
Emperor looses a hawk, there is no need that he follow it 
up, for those men I speak of keep so good a lookout that 
they never lose sight of the birds, and if these have need of 
help they are ready to render it. 

All the Emperor's hawks, and those of the Barons as 
well, have a little label attached to the leg to mark them, 
on which is written the names of the owner and the keeper 
of the bird. And in this way the hawk, when caught, is at 
once identified and handed over to its owner. But if not, 
the bird is carried to a certain Baron, who is styled the 
Bidarguchi) which is as much as to say, " The Keeper of 
Lost Property." And I tell you that whatever may be found 
without a known owner, whether it be a horse, or a sword, 
or a hawk, or what not, it is carried to that Baron straight- 
way, and he takes charge of it. And if the finder neglects 
to deliver his find to the Baron, the latter punishes him. 
Likewise the loser of any article goes to the Baron, and if 
the thing be in his hands it is immediately given up to the 
owner. Moreover, the said Baron always pitches on the 
highest spot of the camp, with his banner displayed, in 
order that those who have lost or found anything may 
have no difficulty in finding their way to him. Thus 



XV.] THE LUXURY OF SPORT. 143 

nothing can be lost but it shall be soon found and restored 
without delay. 

And so the Emperor follows this road that I have men- 
tioned, leading along in the vicinity of the Ocean Sea 
(which is within two days' journey of his capital city, 
Cambaluc), and as he goes, there is many a fine sight to 
be seen, and plenty of the very best entertainment in 
hawking ; in fact, there is no sport in the world to equal it ! 

The Emperor himself is carried upon four elephants in 
a fine chamber made of timber, lined inside with plates of 
beaten gold, and outside with lions' skins, for he always 
travels in this way on his fowling expeditions, because he 
is troubled with gout. He always keeps beside him a 
dozen of his choicest gerfalcons, and is attended by several 
of his Barons, who ride on horseback alongside. And 
sometimes, as they may be going along, and the Emperor 
from his chamber is holding discourse with the Barons, one 
of the latter shall exclaim : " Sire ! look out for the 
cranes ! " Then the Emperor instantly has the top of his 
chamber thrown open, and, having marked the cranes, he 
flies one of his gerfalcons, whichever he pleases ; and often 
the quarry is struck within his view, so that he has the most 
exquisite sport and diversion there, as he sits in his chamber 
or lies on his bed; and all the Barons with him get the 
enjoyment of it likewise ! So it is not without reason I tell 
you that I do not believe there ever existed in the world, or 
ever will exist, a man with such sport and enjoyment as he 
has, or with such rare opportunities. 

And when he has travelled till he reaches a place called 
Cachar Modun, there he finds his tents pitched, with the 
tents of his Sons, and his Barons, and those of his ladies 
and theirs, so that there shall be full ten thousand tents 
in all, and all fine and rich ones. And I will tell you 
how his own quarters are disposed. The tent in which he 
holds his courts is larrre enough to give cover easily to one 



144 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

thousand souls. It is pitched with its door to the south, and 
the Barons and Knights remain in waiting on it, whilst the 
Kaan abides in another close to it on the west side. When 
he wishes to speak with any one, he causes the person to 
be summoned to that other tent. Immediately behind the 
Great Tent there is a fine large chamber where the Kaan 
sleeps ; and there are also many other tents and chambers, 
but they are not in contact with the Great Tent as these 
are. The two audience-tents and the sleeping-chamber 
are constructed in this way. Each of the audience-tents 
has three poles, which are of spice-wood, and are most art- 
fully covered with lions' skins, striped with black and white 
and red, so that they do not suffer from any weather. All 
three apartments are also covered outside with similar skins 
of striped lions, a substance that lasts for ever. And inside 
they are all lined with ermine and sable, these two being 
the finest and most costly furs in existence. For a robe of 
sable, large enough to line a mantle, is worth two thousand 
bezants of gold, or one thousand at least, and this kind of 
skin is called by the Tartars "The King of Furs." The 
beast itself is about the size of a marten. These two furs 
of which I speak are applied and inlaid so exquisitely, that 
it is really something worth seeing. All the tent-ropes are 
of silk. And, in short, I may say that those tents, to wit 
the two audience-halls and the sleeping-chamber, are so 
costly that it is not every king could pay for them. 

Round about these tents are others, also fine ones and 
beautifully pitched, in which are the Emperor's ladies, and 
the ladies of the other princes and officers. And then 
there are the tents for the hawks and their keepers, so that 
altogether the number of tents there on the plain is some- 
thing wonderful. To see the many people that are thronging 
to and fro on every side and every day there, you would 
take the camp for a good big city. For you must reckon 
the Leeches [doctors], and the Astrologers, and the 



XV:] STRICT GAME-LAWS. 1 45 

Falconers, and all the other attendants on so great a 
company ; and add that everybody there has his whole 
family with him, for such is their custom. 

The Kaan remains encamped there until the spring, and 
all that time he does nothing but go hawking round about 
among the cane-brakes along the lakes and rivers that 
abound in that region, and across fine plains on which are 
plenty of cranes and swans, and all sorts of other fowl. 
The other gentry of the camp also are never done with 
hunting and hawking, and every day they bring home great 
store of venison and feathered game of all sorts. Indeed, 
without having witnessed it, you would never believe what 
quantities of game are taken, and what marvellous sport 
and diversion they all have whilst they are in camp there. 

There is another thing I should mention ; to wit, that 
for twenty days' journey round the spot nobody is allowed, 
be he who he may, to keep hawks or hounds, though any- 
where else whosoever list may keep them. And further- 
more, throughout all the Emperor's territories, nobody, 
however audacious, dares to hunt any of these four animals, 
to wit, hare, stag, buck, and roe, from the month of March 
to the month of October. Anybody who should do so 
would rue it bitterly. But those people are so obedient to 
the Kaan's commands, that even if a man were to find one 
of those animals asleep by the roadside he would not touch 
it for the world ! And thus the game multiplies at such 
a rate that the whole country swarms with it, and the 
Emperor gets as much as he could desire. Beyond the 
term I have mentioned, however, to wit, that from March 
to October, everybody may take these animals as he lists. 

After the Emperor has tarried in that place, enjoying 
his sport as I have related, from March to the middle of 
May, he moves with all his people, and returns straight to 
his capital city of Cambaluc (which is also the capital 
of Cathay, as you have been told), but all the while. 

IO 



146 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XV. 

continuing to take his diversion in hunting and hawking 
as he goes along. 

In those days, hunting with hawks and falcons 
was called a royal sport, although we should consider 
it rather cruel to chase the birds of the air with 
fierce birds of prey, who are the natural enemies 
of the game birds. But that was certainly a royal 
manner of hunting in which Kublai Khan went to 
the field. Carried in a fine chamber lined with gold 
and covered with choice skins, and borne by a double 
team of elephants, Kublai Khan had only to sit 
and view the scenery until called by his barons to 
look out for the game that had been scared up for 
him. No wonder that Marco exclaims in his enthu- 
siasm, that he does not believe that any other man 
in the world had such rare opportunities for sport ! 
But the great Emperor had one drawback, which 
must have reminded him that he was, after all, 
only a common mortal : with all his magnificence, 
riches, and opportunities for enjoyment, this gorgeous 
monarch had the gout ! 



CHAPTER XVI. 

KUBLAI'S FINANCES AND GOVERNMENT — THE GREAT KHAN AS 
A MONEY-SPINNER — PRINTING MONEY TO ORDER — THE 
EMPEROR'S VALUABLE MONOPOLIES — THE TWELVE BARONS 
AND THEIR POWERS — POST-RUNNERS WHO TRAVEL FAST 
— BURNING "BLACK STONES " FOR FUEL — THE KHAN'S 
PATRIARCHAL RULE. 

npHE Great Khan's method for supplying himself 
-*■ with the money needed to maintain his splendid 
state and magnificent expenditure must needs have 
excited the admiration of Marco Polo. It appears 
that the Khan had hit on the scheme of manufactur- 
ing paper money, and, contrary to the usages of 
modern times, the paper money of the Khan did not 
represent gold and silver lying in the vaults of the 
imperial treasury. The Khan's officials printed their 
money on a soft fabric made from the inner bark of 
the mulberry tree, a paper-like substance which is 
still used in China and Japan instead of the paper 
made from linen or cotton. The fabric was cut into 
pieces of different sizes, and on each piece was 
printed the value to be placed on the note ; and 

Marco says, that each bit of paper was issued with as 

"47 



148 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

much solemnity and authority as if it were pure 
gold or silver : on every piece, he adds, " a variety of 
officials, whose duty it is, have to write their names, 
and to put their seals. And when all is prepared 
duly, the chief officer deputed by the Kaan smears 
the seal entrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses 
it upon the paper, so that the form of the seal remains 
stamped upon it in red ; the money is then authentic. 
Any one forging it would be punished with death. 
And the Kaan causes every year to be made such 
a vast quantity of this money, which costs him 
nothing, that it must equal in amount all the treasure 
in the world." Curiously enough, the place in which 
this paper money was manufactured was called 
" The Mint." Usually, a mint is an establishment 
in which metal is coined into money. 

By an imperial edict, as we may presume, the Great 
Khan caused his paper currency to be accepted as 
money " universally over all his kingdoms and 
provinces and territories, and whithersoever his power 
and sovereignty extends." It must have been a fine 
thing to be able to make money from paper, and then, 
by imperial command, under penalty of death, put it 
into circulation. For Marco tells us that these notes 
were all taken by the people without question ; he 
adds : " And nobody, however important he may think 
himself, dares to refuse them, on pain of death." 

Not only did the Emperor make his own money in 



XVI.] PAPER MONEY. 149 

such quantities as he desired, but he had the monopoly 
of the markets for all sorts of valuable and costly 
commodities. And this was the way in which the 
business of buying and selling was managed in the 
Great Khan's capital : 

Furthermore, all merchants arriving from India or other 
countries, and bringing with them gold or silver or gems 
and pearls, are prohibited from selling to any one but the 
Emperor. He has twelve experts chosen for this business, 
men of shrewdness and experience in such affairs ; these 
appraise the articles, and the Emperor then pays a liberal 
price for them in those pieces of paper. The merchants 
accept his price readily, for in the first place they would not 
get so good an one from anybody else, and secondly they 
are paid without any delay. And with this paper money 
they can buy what they like anywhere over the Empire, 
whilst it is also vastly lighter to carry about on their journeys. 
And it is a truth that the merchants will several times in 
the year bring wares to the amount of four hundred 
thousand bezants, and the Grand Sire pays for all in that 
paper. So he buys such a quantity of those precious things 
every year that his treasure is endless, whilst all the time 
the money he pays away costs him nothing at all. More- 
over, several times in the year proclamation is made through 
the city that any one who may have gold or silver or gems 
or pearls, by taking them to the Mint, shall get a handsome 
price for them. And the owners are glad to do this, 
because they would find no other purchaser give so large a 
price. Thus the quantity they bring in is marvellous, 
though those who do not choose to do so may let it alone. 
Still, in this way, nearly all the valuables in the country 
come into the Kaan's possession. 

When any of those pieces of paper are spoilt — not that 



150 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

they are so very flimsy neither — the owner carries them to 
the Mint, and by paying 3 per cent, on the value he gets 
new pieces in exchange. And if any Baron or any one 
else soever hath need of gold or silver or gems or pearls, 
in order to make plate or girdles or the like, he goes to 
the Mint and buys as much as he lists, paying in this 
paper money. 

The bezant of Marco Polo's time was a gold coin 
which originated in Constantinople during the exist- 
ence of the Byzantine Empire, from which mighty 
power it derives its common name ; for the true title 
of tha coin was the solidus ; it was about equal to 
the dinar in value ; or, to give a more modern com- 
parison, a bezant was equal in value to one ounce of 
silveif But, in reckoning the value of the silver in 
Marco's time, we should bear in mind that the relation 
of gold to silver was not as it is now ; it was about 
ten to one. History records that the Mongol dynasty, 
for years after Marco Polo's time, kept up the policy 
of issuing unlimited quantities of paper money ; and 
in the end, this practice was the cause of many 
financial disasters and much commercial distress. 
But we must not infer that paper money was 
exclusively used by Kublai Khan. Similar notes 
were issued by the Chinese as early as the ninth 
century ; and before Marco was born, money made 
of stamped leather was current in Italy. The 
Japanese also used paper money before the days of 
Kublai Khan. 



XVI.] THE TWELVE BARONS. 151 

Marco Polo spent so much time at the court of 
Kublai Khan, that he not only became very familiar 
with the conduct of affairs in that vast empire, but 
appears to have been filled with admiration for 
the methods pursued by the Sovereign. Here is 
some account of the Khan's system of government 
and his management of his people : 

CONCERNING THE TWELVE BARONS WHO ARE SET OVER 
ALL THE AFFAIRS OF THE GREAT KAAN. 

You must know that the Great Kaan hath chosen twelve 
great Barons, to whom he hath committed all the necessary 
affairs of thirty-four great provinces ; and now I will tell 
you particulars about them and their establishments. 

You must know that these twelve Barons reside alto- 
gether in a very rich and handsome palace, which is inside 
the city of Cambaluc, and consists of a variety of edifices, 
with many suites of apartments. To every province is 
assigned a judge and several clerks, and all reside in this 
palace, where each has his separate quarters. These 
judges and clerks administer all the affairs of the provinces 
to which they are attached, under the direction of the 
twelve Barons. Howbeit, when an affair is of very great 
importance, the twelve Barons lay it before the Emperor, 
and he decides as he thinks best. But the power of 
those twelve Barons is so great that they choose the 
governors for all those thirty-four great provinces that I 
have mentioned, and only after they have chosen do 
they inform the Emperor of their choice. This he con- 
firms, and grants to the person nominated a tablet of gold 
such as is appropriate to the rank of his government. 

Those twelve Barons also have such authority that they 



152 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

can dispose of the movements of the forces, and send 
them whither, and in such strength as, they please. This 
is done indeed with the Emperor's cognisance, but still 
the orders are issued on their authority. They are styled 
Shieng, which is as much as to say "The Supreme Court," 
and the palace where they abide is also called Shieng. 
This body forms the highest authority at the Court of 
the Great Kaan ; and indeed they can favour and advance 
whom they will I will not now name the thirty-four 
provinces to you, because they will be spoken of in 
detail in the course of this Book. 

HOW THE KAAN'S POSTS AND RUNNERS ARE SPED 
THROUGH MANY LANDS AND PROVINCES. 

Now you must know that from this city of Cambaluc 
proceed many roads and highways leading to a variety of 
provinces, one to one province, another to another ; and 
each road receives the name of the province to which it 
leads ; and it is a very sensible plan. And the messengers 
of the Emperor in travelling from Cambaluc, be the road 
whichsoever they will, find at every twenty-five miles of 
the journey a station which they call Yanib, or, as we 
should say, the " Horse-Post-House." - And at each of 
those stations used by the messengers there is a large 
and handsome building for them to put up at, in which 
they find all the rooms furnished with fine beds and all 
other necessary articles in rich silk, and where they are 
provided with everything they can want. If even a king 
were to arrive at one of these, he would find himself well 
lodged. 

At some of these stations, moreover, there shall be 
posted some four hundred horses standing ready for the 
use of the messengers; at others there shall be, two 
hundred, according to the requirements, and to what the 



XVI.] RUNNING POSTMEN. 1 53 

Emperor has established in each case. At every twenty-five 
miles, as I said, or anyhow at every thirty miles, you find 
one of these stations, on all the principal highways leading 
to the different provincial governments ; and the same 
is the case throughout all the chief provinces subject to 
the Great Kaan. Even when the messengers have to 
pass through a roadless tract where neither house nor 
hostel exists, still there the station-houses have been 
established just the same, excepting that the intervals are 
somewhat greater, and the day's journey is fixed at thirty- 
five to forty-five miles, instead of twenty-five to thirty. But 
they are provided with horses and all the other necessaries 
just like those we have described, so that the Emperor's 
messengers, come they from what region they may, find 
everything ready for them. 

And in sooth this is a thing done on the greatest scale 
of magnificence that ever was seen. Never had emperor, 
king, or lord such wealth as this manifests ! For it is a 
fact that on all these posts taken together there are more 
than three hundred thousand horses kept up, specially for 
the use of the messengers. And the great buildings that 
I have mentioned are more than ten thousand in number, 
all richly furnished as I have told you. The thing is on a 
scale so costly and wonderful that it is hard to bring oneself 
to describe it. 

But now I will tell you of another thing that I had for- 
gotten, but which ought to be told whilst I am on this 
subject. You must know that by the Great Kaan's orders 
there has been established between those post-houses at 
every interval of three miles a little fort with some forty 
houses round about it, in which dwell the people who act 
as the Emperor's foot-runners. Every one of those runners 
wears a great wide belt, set all over with bells, so that as 
they run the three miles from post to post their bells are 
heard jingling a long way off. And thus on reaching the 



154 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

post the runner finds another man similarly equipped, and 
all ready to take his place, who instantly takes over what- 
soever he has in charge, and with it receives a slip of paper 
from the clerk who is always on hand for the purpose; 
and so the new man sets off and runs his three miles. At 
the next station he finds his relief ready in like manner ; 
and so the post proceeds, with a change at every three 
miles. And in this way the Emperor, who has an immense 
number of these runners, receives despatches with news 
from places ten days' journey off in one day and night ; 
or, if need be, news from a hundred days' off in ten days 
and nights ; and that is no small matter ! 

In fact, in the fruit season many a time fruit shall be 
gathered one morning in Cambaluc, and in the evening of 
the next day it shall reach the Great Kaan at Chandu, a 
distance of ten days' journey. The clerk at each of the 
posts notes the time of each courier's arrival and departure ; 
and there are often other officers whose business it is to 
make monthly visitations of all the posts, and to punish 
those runners who have been slack in their work. The 
Emperor exempts these men from all tribute and pays 
them besides. 

Moreover, there are also at those stations other men 
equipped similarly with girdles hung with bells, who are 
employed for expresses when there is call for great haste 
in sending despatches to any governor of a province, or to 
give news when any baron has revolted, or in other such 
emergencies ; and these men travel a good two hundred 
or three hundred miles in the day, and as much in the 
night. I'll tell you how it stands. They take a horse 
from those at the station which are standing ready saddled, 
all fresh and in wind, and mount and go at full speed, as 
hard as they can ride in fact. And when those at the 
next post hear the bells, they get ready another horse and 
a man equipped in the same way, and he takes over the 



XVI.] FLEET COURIERS. 155 

letter or whatever it be, and is off full speed to the third 
station, where again a fresh horse is found all ready, and so 
the despatch speeds along from post to post, always at full 
gallop with regular change of horses. And the speed at 
which they go is marvellous. By night, however, they 
cannot go so fast as by day, because they have to be 
accompanied by footmen with torches, who could not 
keep up with them at full speed. 

Those men are highly prized ; and they could never do 
it did they not bind hard the stomach, chest, and head 
with strong bands. And each of them carries with him 
a gerfalcon tablet, in sign that he is bound on an urgent 
express; so that if perchance his horse break down, or 
he meet with other mishap, whomsoever he may fall in 
with on the road, he is empowered to make him dismount 
and give up his horse. Nobody dares refuse in such a 
case ; so that the courier hath always a good fresh nag 
to carry him. 

The system of posting, of which we have this minute 
and lucid account, though in existence in the time of 
Kublai Khan, was not originated by that monarch ; 
it was employed by all the Oriental nations, and is in 
vogue to-day in Northern China, Japan, and other 
countries, where the railway and the telegraph have 
not yet penetrated the vast spaces that lie between 
the large cities. The Japanese runners are very fleet ; 
and when one of them starts off on a long errand, 
he first strips himself of all clothing except a cloth 
around his loins: with his light burden 'slung to 
a stick over his shoulder, he will make seven miles 
an hour for several consecutive hours. In Burmah 



/ 



156 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the kings were accustomed to have delicacies brought 
by horse-posts from distant points to their capital 
at Ava ; and Colonel Yule tells how one of the 
caliphs of Cairo in the tenth century, who had a 
longing for some of the cherries of Baalbek, was 
served by his vizier. The vizier, hearing of the 
wish expressed by his master, caused six hundred 
pigeons to be let loose in Baalbek, their home being 
in Cairo ; and to each leg of each bird was attached 
a small silken bag with one cherry therein. So that 
the gratified caliph, if all the pigeons came home, 
was served with twelve hundred cherries. 

In Marco Polo's time very little was known in 
Europe concerning coal as a fuel. But although 
mineral coal is more generally used in Europe and 
America than it is in China, there are vast deposits 
of this material in China, where it was used as a 
fuel long before our Venetian traveller visited that 
country. Here is his account of " the black stones " 
which so much excited his admiration : 



CONCERNING THE BLACK STONES THAT ARE DUG IN 
CATHAY, AND ARE BURNT FOR FUEL. 

It is a fact that all over the country of Cathay there is 
a kind of black stone existing in beds in the mountains, 
which they dig out and burn like firewood. If you supply 
a fire with them at night, and see that they are well 
kindled, you will find them still alight in the morning ; and 
they make such capital fuel that no other is used throughout 



XVI.] COAL. 157 

the country. It is true that they have plenty of wood also, 
but they do not burn it, because these stones burn better 
and cost less. 

It is said that coal exists in every province of 
China, but it is most plentiful in Northern China, 
where there are inexhaustible beds of anthracite ; 
and the people use it (as Marco says) in preference 
to any other kind of fuel. The unwillingness of 
the Chinese Government to allow large commercial 
enterprises to be undertaken by foreigners has pre- 
vented any liberal opening of these coal mines, and 
the people only mine the deposits in a feeble and 
fitful way. If any one should wonder at Marco's 
apparent ignorance of the true nature of mineral coal, 
he should remember that coal was not burnt in the 
South of Europe, where our traveller spent his youth, 
until very recent times. Even up to late days coal 
was known in England, where it was first used, as 
" stone coal," to distinguish it from charcoal. As far 
back as A.D. 850 mention is made, in the records 
of Peterborough Abbey, of " fossil fuel " ; and it is 
believed that the Romans learned from the ancient 
Britons the uses of this kind of fuel. Nevertheless, 
coal was not commonly used in London until 1240, 
some forty years before the time of Marco Polo ; 
and as communication between London and Venice 
was tedious and uncertain, it was not surprising that 
the Venetians knew nothing of coal as a fuel 



158 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

The present form of government in China is 
beneficent and patriarchal in theory, but by no means 
so benevolent in practice, as it would appear to 
one who reads only a Chinese version of political 
affairs in that empire. Apparently, under Kublai 
Khan the administration of the government was 
really what the present government professes to 
be, as will be seen in the following account taken 
from Polo's book : 

HOW THE GREAT KAAN CAUSES STORES OF CORN TO BE 
MADE, TO HELP HIS PEOPLE WITHAL IN TIME OF 
DEARTH. 

You must know that when the Emperor sees that the 
corn is cheap and abundant he buys up large quantities, 
and has it stored in all his provinces and great granaries, 
where it is so well looked after that it will keep for three 
or four years. 

And this applies, let me tell you, to all kinds of corn, 
whether wheat, barley, millet, rice, panic, or what not ; and 
when there is any scarcity of a particular kind of corn he 
causes that to be issued. And if the price of the corn is at 
one bezant the measure, he lets them have it at a bezant 
for four measures, or at whatever price will produce general 
cheapness ; and every one can have food in this way. And 
by this providence of the Emperor's his people can never 
suffer from dearth. He does the same over his whole 
Empire, causing these supplies to be stored everywhere 
according to calculation of the wants and necessities of the 
people. 



XVI.] A CHARITABLE KHAN. 1 59 

OF THE CHARITY OF THE EMPEROR TO THE POOR. 

I have told you how the Great Kaan provides for the 
distribution of necessaries to his people in time of dearth 
by making store in time of cheapness. Now I will tell you 
of his alms and great charity to the poor of his city of 
Cambaluc. 

You see he causes selection to be made of a number of 
families in the city which are in a state of indigence, ' and 
of such families some may consist of six in the house, 
some of eight, some of ten, more or fewer in each as it 
may hap, but the whole number being very great. And 
each family he causes annually to be supplied with wheat 
and other corn sufficient for the whole year. And this he 
never fails to do every year. Moreover, all those who 
choose to go to the daily dole at the Court receive a great 
loaf apiece hot from the baking, and nobody is denied ; for 
so the Lord hath ordered. And so some thirty thousand 
people go for it every day from year's end to year's end. Now 
this is a great goodness in the Emperor to take pity of his 
poor people thus ! And they benefit so much by it that 
they worship him as he were God. 

He also provides the poor with clothes. For he lays a 
tithe upon all wool, silk, hemp, and the like from which 
clothing can be made : and he has these woven and laid 
up in a building set apart for the purpose; and as all 
artisans are bound to give a day's labour weekly, in this 
way the Kaan has these stuffs made into clothing for those 
poor families, suitable for summer or winter, according to 
the time of year. He also provides the clothing for his 
troops, and has woollens woven for them in every city, the 
material for which is furnished by the tithe aforesaid. You 
should know that the Tartars, before they were converted 
to the religion of the Idolaters, never practised almsgiving. 
Indeed, when any poor man begged of them they would tell 



160 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

him : " Go with God's curse, for if He loved you as He 
loves me He would have provided for you ! " But the 
sages of the Idolaters, and especially the Bacsis mentioned 
before, told the Great Kaan that it was a good work to 
provide for the poor, and that his idols would be greatly 
pleased if he did so. And since then he has taken to do 
for the poor so much as you have heard. 

CONCERNING THE VIEWS OF THE CATHAYANS [CHINESE] 
AS TO THE SOUL, AND THEIR CUSTOMS. 

Their view of the immortality of the soul is after this 
fashion : They believe that as soon as a man dies his soul 
enters into another body, going from a good to a better, or 
from a bad to a worse, according as he hath conducted 
himself well or ill. That is to say, a poor man, if he have 
passed through life good and sober, shall be born again of 
a gentlewoman, and shall be a gentleman ; and on a second 
occasion shall be born of a princess, and shall be a prince, 
and so on, always rising, till he be absorbed into the Deity. 
But if he have borne himself ill, he who was the son of a 
gentleman shall be reborn as the son of a boor, and from 
a boor shall become a dog, always going down lower and 
lower. 

The people have an ornate style of speech ; they salute 
each other with a cheerful countenance, and with great 
politeness ; they behave like gentlemen, and eat with great 
propriety. They show great respect to their parents ; and 
should there be any son who offends his parents, or fails 
to minister to their necessities, there is a public office 
which has no other charge but that of punishing unnatural 
children, who are proved to have acted with ingratitude 
towards their parents. 

Criminals of sundry kinds who have been imprisoned 
are released at a time fixed by the Great Kaan (which 



XVI.] A year's programme. 161 

occurs every three years), but on leaving prison they are 
branded on one cheek, that they may be recognised. 

The Great Kaan hath prohibited all gambling and 
sharping, things more prevalent there than in any other 
part of the world. In doing this, he said : " I have 
conquered you by force of arms, and all that you have is 
mine; if, therefore, you gamble away your property, it is 
in fact my property that you are gambling away." Not 
that he took anything from them, however. 

I must not omit to tell you of the orderly way in which 
the Kaan's Barons and others conduct themselves in coming 
to his presence. In the first place, within a half-mile of 
the place where he is, out of reverence for his exalted 
majesty, everybody preserves a mien of the greatest meek- 
ness and quiet, so that no noise of shrill voices or loud 
talk shal be heard. 



We may here add Marco's account of the way in 
which the year of the Great Khan is spent : 

On arriving at his capital of Cambaluc, he stays in his 
palace three days and no more during which time he has 
great court entertainments and rejoicings. He then quits 
his palace at Cambaluc, and proceeds to that city which 
he has built, as I told you before, and which is called 
Chandu, where he has that grand park and palace of cane. 
There he spends the summer, to escape the heat, for the 
situation is a very cool one. After stopping there from the 
beginning of May to the 28th of August, he takes his 
departure, and returns to his capital Cambaluc. There he 
stops the month of September to keep his Birthday Feast, 
and also throughout October, November, December, 
January, and February, in which last month he keeps the 
grand feast of the New Year, which they call the White 

II 



1 62 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XVI. 

Feast. He then sets out on his march towards the Ocean 
Sea, hunting and hawking, and continues out from the 
beginning of March to the middle of May ; and then 
comes back for three days only to the capital, during 
which he makes merry, and holds a great court and grand 
entertainments. In truth, 'tis something astonishing, the 
magnificence displayed by the Emperor in those three 
days ; and then he starts off again as you know. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE GOLDEN KING AND PRESTER JOHN — THE FAMED YELLOW RIVER 
— SOME OF THE WONDERS OF YUNNAN — THE TRAVELLER 
MEETS WITH CROCODILES — " THE PEOPLE OF THE GOLD 
TEETH" — CURIOSITIES OF TATTOOING — A FAMOUS BATTLE 
— THE CITY OF MIEN. 



M 



ARCO, having told his readers many won- 
derful things about Kublai Khan and his 
court and people, then addressed himself to the 
narration of some of his adventures in travelling 
about the great Mongolian Empire. This part of 
his book he begins by saying : 

Now you must know that the Emperor sent the aforesaid 
Marco Polo, who is the author of this whole story, on busi- 
ness of his into the Western Provinces. On that occasion 
he travelled from Cambaluc a good four months' journey 
toward the west. And so now I will tell you all that he saw 
on his travels as he went and returned. 

The journey which Marco took was along the 
boundary of Cathay, or China, nearest to the Indian 
Empire ; the provinces of the Mongolian Empire 
through which he passed are now known as Shansi, 
Szechwan, and Tibet. We are not able to find on 
a modern map all the places of which Marco makes 

163 



1 64 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

mention in his account of his journey through the 
Western Provinces. But some of the names of cities 
are found easily enough. For example, Pianfu, one 
of the cities first mentioned in Marco's journal, 
was undoubtedly Pingyangfu, as the city is now 
called. We are not so certain about Chaicu, which 
lies two days' ride farther west. 

Here, Marco says, is " a noble castle, built in time 
past by a king of that country, whom they used to 
call the Golden King," and then relates this story : 

Now I will tell you a pretty passage that befell between 
this Golden King and Prester John, as it was related by the 
people of the Castle. 

It came to pass, as they told the tale, that this Golden 
King was at war with Prester John. And the King held a 
position so strong that Prester John was not able to get at 
him or to do him any scathe ; wherefore he was in great 
wrath. So seventeen gallants belonging to Prester John's 
Court came to him in a body, and said that, an he would, 
they were ready to bring him the Golden King alive. His 
answer was, that he desired nothing better, and would be 
much bounden to them if they would do so. 

So when they had taken leave of their Lord and Master 
Prester John, they set off together, this goodly company of 
gallants, and went to the Golden King, and presented 
themselves before him, saying that they had come from 
foreign parts to enter his service. And he answered by 
telling them that they were right welcome, and that he 
was glad to have their service, never imagining that they 
had any ill intent. And so these mischievous squires took 
service with the Golden King, and served him so well 
that he grew to love them dearly. 



XVII.] THESE MISCHIEVOUS SQUIRES. l6$ 

And when they had abode with that King nearly two 
years, conducting themselves like persons who thought of 
anything but treason, they one day accompanied the King 
on a pleasure party wnen he had very few else along with 
him ; for in those gallants the King had perfect trust, and 
thus kept them immediately about his person. So after 
they had crossed a certain river that is about a mile from 
the Castle, and saw that they were alone with the King, 
they said one to another that now was the time to achieve that 
they had come for. Then they all incontinently drew near, 
and told the King that he must go with them and make no 
resistance, or they would slay him. The King at this was 
in alarm and great astonishment, and said : " How then, 
good my sons, what thing is this ye say ? and whither would 
ye have me go ? " They answered and said : " You shall 
come with us, will ye nill ye, to Prester John our Lord." 

And on this the Golden King was so sorely grieved that 
he was like to die. And he said, to them : " Good my 
sons, for God's sake have pity and compassion upon me. 
Ye wot well what honourable and kindly entertainment ye 
have had in my house ; and now ye would deliver me into 
the hands of mine enemy ! In sooth, if ye do what ye say, 
ye will do a very naughty and disloyal deed, and a right 
villainous." But they answered only that so it must be, 
and away they had him to Prester John their Lord. 

And when Prester John beheld the King he was right 
glad, and greeted him with something like a malison. The 
King answered not a word, as if he wist not what it behoved 
him to say. So Prester John ordered him to be taken 
forth straightway, and to be put to look after cattle, but to 
be well looked after himself also. So they took him and 
set him to keep cattle. This did Prester John of the 
grudge he bore the King, to heap contumely on him, and 
to show what a nothing he was, compared to himself. 

And when the King had thus kept cattle for two years, 



1 66 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

Prester John sent for him, and treated him with honour, 
and clothed him in rich robes, and said to him : " Now, 
Sir King, art thou satisfied that thou wast in no way a man 
to stand against me ? " " Truly, my good Lord, I know 
well and always did know that I was in no way a man to 
stand against thee." And when he had said this Prester 
John replied : " I ask no more ; but henceforth thou shalt 
be waited on and honourably treated." So he caused 
horses and harness of war to be given him, with a goodly 
train, and sent him back to his own country. And after 
that he remained ever friendly to Prester John, and held 
fast by him. 

When Marco goes on to speak of the great river 
Caramoran, it is easy to identify that watercourse 
with one of the famous rivers of China. He says : 

When you leave Chaicu, and travel about twenty miles 
westward, you come to a river called Caramoran, so big 
that no bridge can be thrown across it ; for it is of immense 
width and depth, and reaches to the Great Ocean that 
encircles the Universe — I mean the whole earth. On this 
river there are many cities and walled towns, and many 
merchants too therein, for much traffic takes place upon the 
river, there being a great deal of ginger and a great deal of 
silk produced in the country. 

This could be none other than the Hoang-Ho, 
or Yellow River, sometimes called " The Sorrow of 
China," on account of the great destruction of life 
and property it brings by its floods. We must bear 
in mind that, when Marco wrote, nobody actually 
knew what water or land lay to the eastward of 



XVII.] THE YELLOW RIVER. 1 67 

China ; therefore he speaks of the " Great Ocean 
that encircles the Universe," and this was usually 
known as the " Ocean Sea." As the Amazon and 
the Mississippi rivers were unknown then, the Yellow 
River of China was the largest known, and Marco 
was the first to bring back to Europe any detailed 
account of that stream. 

After crossing the Yellow River and travelling 
two days westward Marco reached the city of 
Chacanfu, and then eight days westward brought 
him to Kenjanfu, of which he makes mention after 
this manner : 

And when you have travelled those eight days' journey, 
you come to that great city which I mentioned, called 
Kenjanfu, which in old times was a noble, rich, and 
powerful realm, and had many great and wealthy and 
puissant kings. But now the king thereof is a prince called 
Mangalai, the son of the Great Kaan, who hath given 
him this realm, and crowned him king thereof. It is a 
city of great trade and industry. They have great abun- 
dance of silk, from which they weave cloths of silk and gold, 
of divers kinds, and they also manufacture all sorts of 
equipments for an army. They have every necessary of 
man's life very cheap. The city lies towards the west ; 
and outside the city is the palace of the Prince Mangalai, 
crowned king, and son of the Great Kaan, as I told you 
before. 

This is a fine palace and a great, as I will tell you. 
It stands in a great plain abounding in lakes and streams 
and springs of water. Round about it is a massive and 
lofty wall, five miles in compass, well built, and all garnished 



168 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

with battlements. And within this wall is the King's 
palace, so great and fine that no one could imagine a 
finer. There are in it many great and splendid halls, 
and many chambers, all painted and embellished with 
work in beaten gold. This Mangalai rules his realm 
right and well with justice and equity, and is much be- 
loved by his people. The troops are quartered round 
about the palace, and enjoy the sport that the royal 
demesne affords. 

Kenjanfu we know to be Singanfu, one of the 
ancient and historic cities of China. It was once 
the residence of the Chinese Emperor, and is now 
the capital of the province of Shansi. It is renowned 
as the seat of a Christian colony, of which a remark- 
able memorial remains. The Christian missionaries, 
who penetrated this remote region long before the 
coming of Marco Polo, were Nestorians from Persia, 
or from Constantinople — it is not certain which. 
They were Asiatics, and took their name from 
Nestorius, one of the early Christian bishops, who 
flourished in the fifth century of the Christian era, 
and whose seat was in Constantinople. A tablet 
has been found in a ruined temple near Singanfu, on 
which are inscribed in Chinese and Syriac characters 
a full statement of the sum of the Christian doctrine, 
an account of the arrival of a Christian missionary 
with books, the Emperor's approval of the doctrines, 
and his order for the erection of a church. This 
tablet, which is seven feet high and three feet wide, 



XVII.] BAMBOOZLED ! 1 69 

and is surmounted by a carved likeness of a cross, 
is the oldest Christian monument in Asia. 

Reaching the southern part of Shansi, Marco 
approaches Manzi, or that part of the empire which 
lies south of the Yellow River. The capital of the 
province, he says, is called " Acbalec Manzi, which 
signifies ' The White City of the Manzi Frontier.' " 
In these later days the Americans have had a 
White City, which was built for the Columbian Fair 
in Chicago. 

Passing through Tibet, Marco notices particularly 
the bamboos there. He calls them "canes," and 
exaggerates a little about them ; but perhaps ex- 
aggeration was natural, because, before gunpowder 
became familiar, no sharp explosive sounds of this 
kind were known to ordinary experience. This is 
what he says : 

In this region you find quantities of canes, full three 
palms in girth and fifteen paces in length, with some three 
palms' interval between the joints. And let me tell you 
that merchants and other travellers are wont at nightfall to 
gather these canes and make fires of them ; for as they burn 
they make such loud reports that the lions and bears and 
other wild beasts are greatly frightened, and make off as 
fast as possible; in fact, nothing will induce them to come 
nigh a fire of that sort. So you see the travellers make 
those fires to protect themselves and their -cattle from the 
wild beasts, which have so greatly multiplied since the 
devastation of the country. And 'tis this great multiplication 
of the wild beasts that prevents the country from being 



170 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch 

reoccupied. In fact, but for the help of these canes, which 
make such a noise in burning that the beasts are terrified 
and kept at a distance, no one would be able even to travel 
through the land. 

I will tell you how it is that the canes make such a noise. 
The people cut the green canes, of which there are vast 
numbers, and set fire to a heap of them at once. After 
they have been awhile burning they burst asunder, and this 
makes such a loud report that you might hear it ten miles 
off. In fact, any one unused to this noise, who should 
hear it unexpectedly, might easily go into a swound or die 
of fright. But those who are used to it care nothing about 
it. Hence those who are not used to it stuff their ears well 
with cotton, and wrap up their heads and faces with all the 
clothes they can muster ; and so they get along until they 
have become used to the sound. 'Tis just the same with 
horses. Those which are unused to these noises are so 
alarmed by them that they break away from their halters 
and heel-ropes, and many a man has lost his beasts in this 
way. So those who would avoid losing their horses take 
care to tie all four legs and peg the ropes down strongly, 
and to wrap the heads and eyes and ears of the animals 
closely, and so they save them. But horses also, when 
they have heard the noise several times, cease to mind it. 
I tell you the truth, however, when I say that the first time 
you hear it nothing can be more alarming. And yet, in 
spite of all, the lions and bears and other wild beasts will 
sometimes come and do much mischief; for their numbers 
are great in those tracts. 

Marco's next advance was into the province of 
Yunnan, in the extreme south-western corner of 
China, north of Siam, and east of Burmah. Even 
in these modern times very little is known of 



XVII.] ALLIGATORS. 171 

Yunnan, the best account of the country having 
been written by Mr. T. T. Cooper, an English 
traveller, who was killed by one of his own native 
guard, in Burmah, in 1878. It is not likely that 
Kublai Khan knew much about that most remote 
of his conquered provinces, and so young Marco 
was sent to bring to the Khan whatever information 
he could pick up concerning the country and its 
resources. Here is part of his report : 

MARCO POLO'S REPORT UPON THE PROVINCE OF 

YUNNAN. 

In this country gold-dust is found in great quantities; 
that is to say, in the rivers and lakes, while in the mountains 
gold is also found in pieces of larger size. Gold is indeed 
so abundant that they give one saggio of gold for only 
six of the same weight in silver. And for small change 
they use the porcelain shells, as I mentioned before. 
These are not found in the country, however, but are 
brought from India. 

In this province are found snakes and great serpents of 
such vast size as to strike fear into those who see them, 
and so hideous that the very account of them must excite 
the wonder of those who hear it. I will tell you how long 
and big they are. 

You may be assured that some of them are ten paces 
in length ; some are more and some less. And in bulk 
they are equal to a great cask, for the bigger ones are about 
ten palms in girth. The head is very big. The mouth 
is large enough to swallow a man whole, and is garnished 
with great pointed teeth. And in short they are so fierce- 
looking and so hideously ugly, that every man and beast 



172 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

must stand in fear and trembling of them. There are also 
smaller ones, such as of eight paces long, and of five, and of 
one pace only. 

The way in which they are caught is this : You must 
know that by day they live underground because of the 
great heat, and in the night they go out to feed, and devour 
every animal they can catch. They go also to drink at 
the rivers and lakes and springs. And their weight is so 
great that when they travel in search of food or drink, 
as they do by night, the tail makes a great furrow in the 
soil, as if a full tun of liquor had been dragged along. Now 
the huntsmen who go after them take them by a certain 
gin [trap] which they set in the track over which the 
serpent has passed, knowing that the beast will come back 
the same way. They plant a stake deep in the ground, and 
fix on the head of this a sharp blade of steel made like 
a razor or a lance-point, and then they cover the whole with 
sand, so that the serpent cannot see it. Indeed, the hunts- 
man plants several such stakes and blades on the track. 
On coming to the spot, the beast strikes against the iron 
blade with such force that it enters his breast and rives 
[cuts] him, so that he dies on the spot; and the crows 
on seeing the brute dead begin to caw, and then the 
huntsmen know that the serpent is dead and come in search 
of him. • 

This then is the way these beasts are taken. Those 
who take them proceed to extract the gall from the inside, 
and this sells at a great price ; for you must know it 
furnishes the material for a most precious medicine. 
Thus if a person is bitten by a mad dog, and they give 
him but a small pennyweight of this medicine to drink, 
he is cured in a moment. Again, if one has any disease 
of the skin and applies a small quantity of this gall, he 
shall speedily be cured. So you see why it sells at such a 
high price. 



XVII.] SMALL CHANGE. 1 73 

They also sell the flesh of this serpent, for it is excellent 
eating, and the people are very fond of it. And when 
these serpents are very hungry, sometimes they will 
seek out the lairs of lions or bears or other large wild 
beasts, and devour their cubs, without the sire and dam 
being able to prevent it. Indeed, if they catch the big 
ones themselves they devour them too ; they can make no 
resistance. 

This was Marco's first view, we must suppose, 
of alligators or crocodiles. No wonder he gazed 
upon these horrid " serpents " with so much amaze- 
ment. But if we leave out his ignorance of the 
name, we shall find that his account of the alligator, 
as he is now known, is accurate enough. The 
creatures are caught and killed now precisely as 
he narrates ; and their habits are the same as he 
describes them. But we can well imagine that the 
incredulous Venetians, to whom these travellers' tales 
were told, winked to each other and smiled " in 
their sleeves " to hear such marvellous accounts of 
strange beasts. 

Concerning the use of shells as money, it is hardly 
necessary to tell the bright young folks who read 
these chapters, that shells of the variety known as 
cowrie are still used in some parts of India and in 
the islands of the South Pacific for money. Marco 
found many people in Tibet and other Indo-Chinese 
provinces who used cakes of salt for small change. 
Salt is costly ; everybody must have it ; and, in 



174 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

default of small money, it was and is used in making 
change. 

The curious customs of the people of Zardandan 
attracted the attention of our traveller, who devotes a 
large section of one of his chapters to a description 
of them : 

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF ZARDANDAN. 

When you have left Carajan and have travelled five 
days westward, you find a province called Zardandan. 
The capital city is called Vochan. 

The people of this country all have their teeth gilt ; or 
rather every man covers his teeth with a sort of golden 
case made to fit them, both the upper teeth and the under. 
The men do this, but not the women. The men also are 
wont to gird their arms and legs with bands or fillets 
pricked in black, and it is done thus : they take five needles 
joined together, and with these they prick the flesh till the 
blood comes, and then they rub in a certain black colouring 
stuff, and this is perfectly indelible. It is considered a 
piece of elegance and the sign of gentility to have this 
black band. The men are all gentlemen in their fashion, 
and do nothing but go to the wars, or go hunting and 
hawking. The ladies do all the business, aided by the 
slaves who have been taken in war. 

They eat all kinds of meat, both raw and cooked, and 
they eat rice with their cooked meat as their fashion is. 
Their drink is wine made of rice and spices, and excellent 
it is. Their money is gold, and for small change they use 
pig-shells. And I can tell you they give one weight of 
gold for only five of silver; for there is no silver mine 
within five months' journey. And this induces merchants 
to go thither carrying a large supply of silver to change 



XVII.] DEVIL-DOCTORS. 175 

among that people. And as they have only five weights 
of silver to give for one of fine gold, they make immense 
profits by their exchange business in that country. 

These people have neither idols nor churches, but 
worship the progenitor of their family; "for 'tis he," say 
they, "from whom we have all sprung." They have no 
letters or writing ; and 'tis no wonder, for the country is 
wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains 
which 'tis impossible to pass, the air in summer is so 
impure and bad; and any foreigners attempting it would 
die for certain. When these people have any business 
transactions with one another, they take a piece of stick, 
round or square, and split it, each taking half. And on 
either half they cut two or three notches. And when the 
account is settled the debtor receives back the other half 
of the stick from the creditor. 

And let me tell you that in all those three provinces that 
I have been speaking of, to wit, Carajan, Vochan, and 
Yachi, there is never a leech. But when any one is ill 
they send for their magicians; that is to say, the Devil- 
conjurers and those who are the keepers of the idols. 
When these are come the sick man tells them what ails 
him, and then the conjurers incontinently begin playing 
on their instruments and singing and dancing ; and the 
conjurers dance to such a pitch that at last one of them 
shall fall to the ground lifeless, like a dead man. And 
then the devil entereth into his body. And when his 
comrades see him in this plight they begin to put questions 
to him about the sick man's ailment. And he will reply : 
" Such or such a spirit hath been meddling with the man, 
for that he hath angered the spirit and done it some 
despite." Then they say : " We pray thee to pardon him, 
and to take of his blood or of his goods what thou wilt 
in consideration of thus restoring him to health." And 
when they have so prayed the malignant spirit that is in 



L?6 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the body of the prostrate man will (mayhap) answer : " The 
sick man hath also done great despite unto such another 
spirit, and that one is so ill-disposed that it will not pardon 
him on any account " ; — this at least is the answer they get, 
an the patient be like to die. But if he is to get better 
the answer will be that they are to bring two sheep, or 
maybe three ; and to brew ten or twelve jars of drink, 
very costly and abundantly spiced. Moreover, it shall be 
announced that the sheep must be all black-faced, or of 
some other particular colour as it may hap ; and then all 
those things are to be offered in sacrifice to such and such 
a spirit whose name is given. And they are to bring so 
many conjurers and so many ladies, and the business is 
to be done with a great singing of lauds, and with many 
lights, and store of good perfumes. That is the sort of 
answer they get if the patient is to get well. And then 
the kinsfolk of the sick man go and procure all that has 
been commanded, and do as has been bidden, and the 
conjurer who had uttered all that gets on his legs again. 

So they fetch the sheep of the colour prescribed, and 
slaughter them, and sprinkled the blood over such places 
as have been enjoined, in honour and propitiation of the 
spirit. And the conjurers come, and the ladies, in the 
number that was ordered ; and when all are assembled and 
everything is ready, they begin to dance and play and sing 
in honour of the spirit. And they take flesh-broth, and 
drink, and lign-aloes, and a great number of lights, and go 
about hither and thither, scattering the broth and the drink 
and the meat also. And when they have done this for 
a while, again shall one of the conjurers fall flat and wallow 
there foaming at the mouth, and then the others will ask if 
he have yet pardoned the sick man. And sometimes he 
shall answer Yea ! and sometimes he shall answer No ! And 
if the answer be JVo, they shall be told that something or 
other has to be done all over again, and then he will be 



XVII.] A FAMOUS BATTLE. 1 77 

pardoned ; so this they do. And when all that the spirit 
has commanded has been done with great ceremony, then 
it shall be announced that the man is pardoned and shall 
be speedily cured. So when they at length receive such 
a reply, they announce that it is all made up with the spirit, 
and that he is propitiated, and they fall to eating and 
drinking with great joy and mirth, and he who had been 
lying lifeless on the ground gets up and takes his share. So 
when they have all eaten and drunken, every man departs 
home. And presently the sick man gets sound and well. 

OF THE BATTLE THAT WAS FOUGHT BY THE GREAT KAAN'S 
HOST AGAINST THE KING OF MIEN AND BANGALA. 

But I was forgetting to tell you of a famous battle that 
was fought in the kingdom of Vochan in the province 
of Zardandan, and that ought not to be omitted from our 
Book. 

You see, in the year of Christ 1272, the Great Kaan sent 
a large force into the kingdoms of Carajan and Vochan. 
Now there was a certain King called the King of Mien 
and Bangala, who was a very puissant Prince, with much 
territory and treasure and people. And it came to pass 
that when this King heard that the host of the Great Kaan 
was at Vochan, he said to himself that it behoved him to 
go against them with so great a force as should insure his 
cutting off the whole of them, insomuch that the Great Kaan 
would be very sorry ever to send an army again thither. 

So this King prepared a great force and munitions of 
war; and he had, let me tell you, two thousand great 
elephants, on each of which was set a tower of timber, well 
framed and strong, and carrying from twelve to sixteen 
well-armed fighting-men. And besides these, he had of 
horsemen and of footmen good sixty thousand men. In 
short, he equipped a fine force, as well befitted such a 

12 



178 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

puissant Prince. It was indeed a host capable of doing 
great things. 

And what shall I tell you ? When the King had com- 
pleted these great preparations to fight the Tartars, he 
tarried not, but straightway marched against them. 

And when the Captain of the Tartar host had certain 
news that the King aforesaid was coming against him with 
so great a force, he waxed uneasy, seeing that he had with 
him but twelve thousand horsemen. Natheless he was a 
most valiant and able soldier, of great experience in arms, 
and an excellent Captain ; and his name was Nescradin. 
His troops too were very good, and he gave them very 
particular orders and cautions how to act, and took every 
measure for his own defence and that of his army. And 
why should I make a long story of it ? The whole force of 
the Tartars advanced to receive the enemy in the Plain 
of Vochan, and there they waited to give them battle. And 
this they did through the good judgment of the excellent 
Captain who led them ; for hard by that plain was a great 
wood, thick with trees. 

And when the army of the King of Mien had arrived in 
the plain, and was within a mile of the enemy, he caused 
all the castles that were on the elephants to be ordered for 
battle, and the fighting-men to take up their posts on them, 
and he arrayed his horse and his foot with all skill, like a 
wise King as he was. And when he had completed all his 
arrangements, he began to advance to engage the enemy. 
The Tartars, seeing the foe advance, showed no dismay, 
but came on likewise with good order and discipline to 
meet them. And when they were near, and naught re- 
mained but to begin the fight, the horses of the Tartars 
took such fright at the sight of the elephants that they 
could not be got to face the foe, but always swerved and 
turned back ; whilst all the time the King and his forces, 
and all his elephants, continued to advance upon them. 



XVII.] A SHREWD GENERAL. 1 79 

And when the Tartars perceived how the case stood, 
they were in great wrath, and wist not what to say or do ; 
for well enough they saw that unless they could get their 
horses to advance all would be lost. But their Captain 
acted like a wise leader who had considered everything 
beforehand. He immediately gave orders that every man 
should dismount and tie his horse to the trees of the 
forest that stood hard by, and that then they should take 
to their bows, a weapon that they knew how to handle 
better than any troops in the world. They did as he 
bade them, and plied their bows stoutly, shooting so many 
shafts at the advancing elephants that in a short space they 
had wounded or slain the greater part of them, as well as of 
the men they carried. The enemy also shot at the Tartars, 
but the Tartars had the better weapons, and were the 
better archers to boot. 

And what shall I tell you? Understand that when 
the elephants felt the smart of those arrows that pelted 
them like rain, they turned tail and fled, and nothing on 
earth would have induced them to turn and face the 
Tartars. So off they sped with such a noise and uproar 
that you would have trowed the world was coming to an 
end ! And then, too, they plunged into the wood and 
rushed this way and that, dashing their castles against 
the trees, bursting their harness, and smashing and destroy- 
ing everything that was on them. 

So when the Tartars saw that the elephants had turned 
tail and could not be brought to face the fight again, 
they got to horse at once and charged the enemy. And 
then the battle began to rage furiously with sword and 
mace. Right fiercely did the two hosts rush together, and 
deadly were the blows exchanged. The King's troops were 
far more in number than the Tartars, but they were not 
of such metal, nor so inured to war ; otherwise the Tartars, 
who were so few in number, could never have stood against 



ISO THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

them. Then might you see swashing blows dealt and 
taken from sword and mace ; then might you see knights 
and horses and men-at-arms go down; then might you 
see arms and hands and legs and heads hewn off; and 
besides the dead that fell, many a wounded man, that 
never rose again, for the sore press there was. The din 
and uproar were so great from this side and from that, that 
God might have thundered and no man would have heard 
it ! Great was the medley, and dire and parlous was the 
fight that was fought on both sides ; but the Tartars had 
the best of it. 

In an ill hour indeed for the King and his people was 
that battle begun, so many of them were slain therein. 
And when they had continued fighting till midday, the 
King's troops could stand against the Tartars no longer, 
but felt that they were defeated, and turned and fled. And 
when the Tartars saw them routed they gave chase, and 
hacked and slew so mercilessly that it was a piteous sight 
to see. But after pursuing awhile they gave up, and 
returned to the wood to catch the elephants that had run 
away ; and to manage this they had to cut down great trees 
to bar their passage. Even then they would not have been 
able to take them without the help of the King's own men 
who had been taken, and who knew better how to deal 
with the beasts than the Tartars did. The elephant is an 
animal that has more wit than any other ; but in this way 
at last they were caught, more than two hundred of them. 
And it was from this time forth that the Great Kaan began 
to keep numbers of elephants. 

OF THE GREAT DESCENT THAT LEADS TOWARDS THE 
KINGDOM OF MIEN. 

After leaving the province of which I have been speaking, 
you come to a great Descent. In fact, you ride for two 



XVII.] THE CITY OF MIEN. l8l 

days and a half continually downhill. On all this descent 
there is nothing worthy of mention, except only that there 
is a large place there where occasionally a great market is 
held ; for all the people of the country round come thither 
on fixed days, three times a week, and hold a market there, 
They exchange gold for silver; for they have gold in 
abundance ; and they give one weight of fine gold for five 
weights of fine silver ; so this induces merchants to come 
from various quarters, bringing silver which they exchange 
for gold with these people ; and in this way the merchants 
make great gain. As regards those people of the country 
who dispose of gold so cheaply, you must understand that 
nobody is acquainted with their places of abode, for they 
dwell in inaccessible positions, in sites so wild and strong 
that no one can get at them to meddle with them. Nor 
will they allow anybody to accompany them, so as to gain 
a knowledge of their abodes. 

CONCERNING THE CITY OF MIEN AND THE TWO TOWERS 
THAT ARE THEREIN. 

In this city there is a thing so rich and rare that I must 
tell you about it. You see there was in former days a rich 
and puissant King in this city, and when he was about to 
die he commanded that by his tomb they should erect two 
towers (one at either end), one of gold and the other of 
silver, in such fashion as I shall tell you. The towers are 
built of fine stone ; and then one of them has been covered 
with gold a good finger in thickness, so that the tower 
looks as if it were all of solid gold ; and the other is 
covered with silver in like manner, so that it seems to be all 
of solid silver. Each tower is a good ten paces in height 
and of breadth in proportion. The upper part of these 
towers is round, and girt all about with bells, the top of 
the gold tower with gilded bells and the silver tower with 



1 82 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

silvered bells, insomuch that whenever the wind blows 
among these bells they tinkle. The tomb likewise was 
plated partly with gold, and partly with silver. The King 
caused these towers to be erected to commemorate his 
magnificence and for the good of his soul ; and really they 
do form one of the finest sights in the world, so exquisitely 
finished are they, so splendid and costly. And when they 
are lighted up by the sun they shine most brilliantly, and 
are visible from a vast distance. 

The name Zardandan signifies " Gold Teeth," and 
is derived from the Persian. The custom of covering 
the teeth with plates of gold was not confined to the 
great ones of Zardandan ; early travellers in Sumatra 
tell us, that the wealthy nobles of that country were 
accustomed to decorate their teeth in the same 
manner. Rashiduddin, who was a contemporary 
with Marco Polo, speaks of the Zardandans as inhabit- 
ing the province on the frontier of Tibet ; and of 
them he says : " These people cover their teeth with 
a gold case, which they take off when they eat." 
Vochan, the chief city of the province of Zardandan, 
is undoubtedly the Chinese city of Yungchangfu, 
a place of considerable importance, on the great high 
road which leads to Ava and Tibet. As for the 
curious marking of the bodies of men and women by 
pricking into the flesh certain pigments, we know 
that tattooing is still practised in many parts of the 
world. Indeed, the practice is by no means confined 
to semi-barbarous peoples. Many a sailor-man in the 



XVII.] SCORE AND TALLY. 1 83 

British and American navies has been adorned on 
various parts of his body with patriotic emblems and 
fanciful pictures, pricked into his flesh in divers 
colours. 

Yunnan is still noted for its ample yield of gold, 
so that it is a common saying in China, when a man 
lives extravagantly, that his father " must needs be 
governor of Yunnan." But the relative value of gold 
and silver is no longer so variable as it was in the 
time of Polo. He says that, in the eastern part of 
Yunnan, one weight of gold was equal to eight of 
silver ; in the western part, it was six to one, and on 
the borders of Ava, it was only five of silver to one of 
gold. In those days, we must suppose, communication 
was infrequent between the different provinces, so 
these great variations in the relative values of the 
metals were not unnatural. 

" Score and tally " was the primitive method of 
keeping accounts among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors ; 
and it is a matter of record that the great fire, 
which destroyed the Houses of Parliament in 1834, 
was caused by overheating the flues of the furnaces, 
when a vast number of discarded wooden tallies, 
which had accumulated in the cellars of the building, 
were being burnt. The tally was a square strip of 
wood, on each angle of which were cut notches to 
represent numbers, or compounds of numbers ; and 
the score was a series of marks set down, usually 



1 84 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XVII. 

by fives, on any smooth surface accessible to the 
person who kept the account. In a case in court, 
once upon a time in England, when a taverner's 
customer demurred against the account of measures 
of ale charged to him, the inn-keeper's door was 
removed from its hinges and produced in court by 
way of documentary evidence. 

Devil-doctors, or exorcists, are still common among 
the half-civilised tribes of all lands. The North 
American Indians send for their " medicine-man " 
when one of their number falls ill. This functionary, 
assisted by persons whom he calls to his aid, leads 
off in a wild chant, and the entire band make a 
prodigious clatter with various implements to " drive 
away the evil spirit " who is tormenting the sick man. 
If the man dies (and the intolerable din, kept up in 
his wigwam, not infrequently hurries him on his 
long journey), the medicine-man calmly explains 
that the evil spirit was one of the hard and difficult 
kind that go not out at the word of any man. All 
over the region in which the Aryan race originated, 
the custom of devil-dancing, or exorcism, still pre- 
vails ; moreover, this strange superstitution, or some- 
thing very like it, may be traced in some of the 
darker parts of the world, among non-Aryan peoples. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

IN SOUTHERN CHINA AND LAOS — CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF A 
STRANGE PEOPLE — LIONS AND LIJN-HUNTING DOGS — MAR- 
VELLOUS PRODUCTS OF SILK — THE REBELLION AND PUNISH- 
MENT OF LIYTAN. 

' I ^HE next succeeding chapters of Marco Polo's 
-■- book deal chiefly with regions, which the 
famous traveller did not visit, but of which he gave 
such accounts as he could procure from the people 
among whom he travelled, after he left Yunnan and 
passed as far as he chose in the direction of Siam 
and Burmah. The region which he next proceeds 
to describe, you must understand, lies north of Siam 
and east of Burmah. 

DISCOURSES OF THE PROVINCE OF CAUGIGU. 

Caugigu is a province toward the east, which has a king. 
The people are Idolaters, and have made their submission 
to the Great Kaan, and send him tribute every year. And 
let me tell you their king is so given to luxury that he hath 
at the least three hundred wives ; for whenever he hears of 
any beautiful woman in the land, he takes and marries her. 

They find in this country a good deal of gold, and they 
also have great abundance of spices. But they are such 

185 



1 86 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

a long way from the sea that the products are of little value, 
and thus their price is low. They have elephants in great 
numbers, and other cattle of sundry kinds, and plenty of 
game. They live on flesh and milk and rice, and have 
wine made of rice and good spices. The whole of the 
people, or nearly so, have their skin marked with the 
needle in patterns representing lions, dragons, birds, and 
what not, done in such a way that it can never be obliter- 
ated. This work they cause to be wrought over face and 
neck and chest, arms and hands, and, in short, the whole 
body ; and they look on it as a token of elegance, so that 
those who have the largest amount of this embroidery are 
regarded with the greatest admiration. 

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF ANIN. 

Anin is a province toward the east, the people of which 
are subject to the Great Kaan, and are Idolaters. They 
live by cattle and tillage, and have a peculiar language. 
The women wear on the legs and arms bracelets of gold 
and silver of great value, and the men wear such as are 
even yet more costly. They have plenty of horses, which 
they sell in great numbers to the Indians, making a great 
profit thereby. And they have also vast herds of buffaloes 
and oxen, having excellent pastures for these. They have 
likewise all the necessaries of life in abundance. 

Now you must know that between Anin and Caugigu, 
which we have left behind us, there is a distance of twenty- 
five days' journey ; and from Caugigu to Bangala, the third 
province in our rear, is thirty days' journey. 

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF COLOMAN. 

Coloman is a province eight days' journey toward the 
east, the people of which are Idolaters and have a peculiar 
language. They are a tall and very handsome people, 



XVIII.] INFESTED WITH "LIONS." 1 87 

though in complexion brown rather than white, and are 
good soldiers. They have a good many towns, and a vast 
number of villages, among great mountains, and in strong 
positions. 

When any of them die the bodies are burnt, and then they 
take the bones and put them in little chests. These are 
carried high up the mountains, and placed in great caverns, 
where they are hung up in such wise that neither man nor 
beast can come at them. 

A good deal of gold is found in the country, and for petty 
traffic they use porcelain shells such as I have told you 
of before. All these provinces that I have been speaking 
of, to wit Bangala and Caugigu and Anin, employ for 
currency porcelain shells and gold. There are merchants 
in this country who are very rich and dispose of large 
quantities of goods. The people live on flesh and rice and 
milk, and brew their wine from rice and excellent spices. 

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CUIJU. 

Cuiju is a province toward the east. After leaving Colo- 
man you travel along a river for twelve days, meeting with 
a good number of towns and villages, but nothing worthy 
of particular mention. After you have travelled those 
twelve days along the river, you come to a great and noble 
city which is called Fungul. 

The people live by trade and handicrafts, and they 
manufacture stuffs of the bark of certain trees which form 
very fine summer clothing. They are good soldiers, and 
have paper money. For you must understand that hence- 
forward we are in the countries where the Great Kaan's 
paper money is current. 

The country swarms with lions to that degree that no 
man can venture to sleep outside his house at night. 
Moreover, when you travel on that river, and come to 



1 88 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

a halt at night, unless you keep a good way from the bank 
the lions will spring on the boat and snatch one of the crew 
and make off with him and devour him. And but for a 
certain help that the inhabitants enjoy, no one could 
venture to travel in that province, because of the multitude 
of those lions, and because of their strength and ferocity. 

But you see they have in this province a large breed of 
dogs, so fierce and bold that two of them together will 
attack a lion. So every man who goes a journey takes 
with him a couple of those dogs • and when a lion appears 
they have at him with the greatest boldness, and the lion 
turns on them, but can't touch them, for they are very deft 
at eschewing his blows. So they follow him, perpetually 
giving tongue, and watching their chance to give him a bite 
in the rump or in the thigh, or wherever they may. The 
lion makes no reprisal except now and then to turn fiercely 
on them, and then indeed were he to catch the dogs it 
would be all over with them, but they take good care that 
he shall not. So, to escape the dogs' din, the lion makes 
off, and gets into the wood, where mayhap he stands at bay 
against a tree. And when the travellers see the lion in this 
plight they take to their bows, for they are capital archers, 
and shoot their arrows at him till he falls dead. And 'tis 
thus that travellers in those parts do deliver themselves from 
those lions. 

They have a good deal of silk and other products, which 
are carried up and down, by the river of which we spoke, 
into various quarters. 

You travel along the river for twelve days more, finding 
a good many towns all along, and the people always 
Idolaters, and subject to the Great Kaan, with paper money 
current, and living by trade and handicrafts. There are 
also plenty of fighting-men. And after travelling those 
twelve days you arrive at the city of Sindafu, of which we 
spoke in this Book some time ago. 



XVIII.] CAUGIGU OR LAOS. 1 89 

From Sindafu you set out again, and travel some seventy 
days through the provinces and cities and towns which 
we have already visited, and all which have been already 
particularly spoken of in our Book. At the end of those 
seventy days you come to Juju, where we were before. 

From Juju you set out again and travel four days toward 
the south, finding many towns and villages. The people 
are great traders and craftsmen, are all Idolaters, and use 
the paper money of the Great Kaan their Sovereign. At 
the end of those four days you come to the city of Cacanfu, 
belonging to the province of Cathay. 



There has been a great deal of discussion about 
the title, which Polo gives to the country described 
under the name of Caugigu ; and it is not easy to 
imagine how the native name of the region has 
been so often and so widely misunderstood. It is 
enough for us to know, that the country here specified 
is, by the best authorities, supposed to be the kingdom 
of Laos, a country lying north and east of Siam and 
tributary to that power, The people of Laos tattoo 
themselves in the manner described by Marco Polo, 
and their country is shut in from the sea and 
abounds in elephants, as our traveller says. The 
province of Anin is believed to be the extreme south- 
eastern part of Yunnan, the inhabitants of which 
have plenty of buffaloes and other domestic animals ; 
and they adorn themselves with a profusion of gold 
and silver ornaments, as recorded by the great 
Venetian. The other provinces of which Marco 



190 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

speaks, Coloman and Cuiju, He to the north-east of 
those already mentioned. Cuiju is probably the 
ancient name (much distorted) of the Chinese pro- 
vince of Kweichau, north-east of Yunnan. " The 
great and noble city of Fungul " is set down on 
modern maps as Phungan, a city of some wealth and 
prominence in Marco Polo's time, but now of small 
note. In that city, however, they still make a fabric 
known as grass-cloth, which is manufactured from- 
vegetable fibres. There are no lions in the Chinese 
Empire, the beasts which Polo calls by that name 
being undoubtedly tigers, which are very fierce and 
common. The great dogs of Kweichau have been 
mentioned by modern travellers, and the story of 
their pursuing and putting to flight the savage 
animals that harass the people is by no means to 
be regarded as a fable. And now we pass over into 
Pecheli. 

CONCERNING THE CITIES OF CACANFU AND OF CHANGLU. 

Cacanfu is a noble city. The people have plenty of 
silk, from which they weave stuffs of silk and gold, and 
sandals in large quantities. There are also certain Christians 
at this place, who have a church. And the city is at the 
head of an important territory containing numerous towns 
and villages. A great river passes through it, on which 
much merchandise is carried to the city of Cambaluc, for 
by many channels and canals it is connected therewith. 

We will now set forth again, and travel three days 
towards the south, and then we come to a town called 



XVIII.] TWO CITIES AND A REBEL. 191 

Changlu. This is another great city belonging to the 
Great Kaan, and to the province of Cathay. The people 
have paper money and burn their dead. They make salt in 
great quantities at this place. I will tell you how 'tis done. 

A kind of earth is found there which is exceedingly salt. 
This they dig up and pile in great heaps. Upon these 
heaps they pour water in quantities till it runs out at the 
bottom ; and then they take up this water and boil it well 
in great iron cauldrons, and as it cools it deposits a fine 
white salt in very small grains. This salt they then carry 
about for sale to many neighbouring districts, and get great 
profit thereby. 

There is nothing else worth mentioning, so let us go 
forward five days' journey, and we shall come to a city called 
Chinangli. 



CONCERNING THE CITY OF CHINANGLI AND THAT OF 
TADINFU, AND THE REBELLION OF LIYTAN. 

Chinangli is a city of Cathay as you go south. There 
runs through the city a great and wide river, on which 
a large traffic in silk goods and spices and other costly 
merchandise passes up and down. 

When you travel south from Chinangli for five days, you 
meet everywhere with fine towns and villages, the people 
of which live by trade and handicrafts, and have all the 
necessaries of life in great abundance ; but there is nothing 
particular to mention on the way till you come, at the end 
of those five days, to Tadinfu. 

This, you must know, is a very great city, and in old 
times was the seat of a great kingdom ; but the Great 
Kaan conquered it by force of arms. Nevertheless it is 
still the noblest city in all those provinces. There are 
very great merchants here who trade on a great scale, and 



192 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the abundance of silk is something marvellous. They 
have, moreover, most charming gardens abounding with 
fruit of large size. The city of Tadinfu hath also under its 
rule eleven imperial cities of great importance, all of which 
enjoy a large and profitable trade, owing to that immense 
produce of silk. 

Now, you must know, that in the year 1273, the Great 
Kaan had sent a certain Baron called Liytan Sangon, 
with some eighty thousand horse, to this province and city 
to garrison them. And after the said captain had tarried 
there awhile, he formed a disloyal and traitorous plot, and 
stirred up the great men of the province to rebel against 
the Great Kaan. And so they did ; for they broke into 
revolt against their Sovereign Lord, and refused all obedience 
to him, and made this Liytan, whom their Sovereign had 
sent thither for their protection, to be the chief of their 
revolt. 

When the Great Kaan heard thereof he straightway 
despatched two of his Barons, one of whom was called 
Aguil and the other Mongotay, giving them one hundred 
thousand horse and a great force of infantry. But the affair 
was a serious one, for the Barons were met by the rebel 
Liytan with all those whom he had collected from the 
province, mustering more than one hundred thousand horse 
and a large force of foot. Nevertheless in the battle Liytan 
and his party were utterly routed, and the two Barons 
whom the Emperor had sent won the victory. When the 
news came to the Great Kaan he was right well pleased, 
and ordered that all the chiefs who had rebelled, or excited 
others to rebel, should be put to a cruel death, but that 
those of lower rank should receive a pardon. And so it 
was done. The two Barons had all the leaders of the 
enterprise put to a cruel death, and all of those of lower 
rank were pardoned. And thenceforward they conducted 
themselves with loyalty towards their Lord. 



XVIII.] A BISECTED RIVER. I93 

CONCERNING THE NOBLE CITY OF SINJUMATU. 

On leaving Tadinfu you travel three days towards the 
south, always finding numbers of noble and populous towns 
and villages flourishing with trade and manufactures. 
There is also abundance of game in the country, and every- 
thing in profusion. 

When you have travelled those three days you come to 
the noble city of Sinjumatu, a rich and fine place, with 
great trade and manufactures. The people are subjects of 
the Great Kaan, and have paper money, and they have a 
river which I can assure you brings them great gain, and I 
will tell you about it. 

You see the river in question flows from the south to this 
city of Sinjumatu. And the people of the city have divided 
this larger river in two, making one half of it flow east and 
the other half flow west ; that is to say, the one branch flows 
towards Manzi and the other towards Cathay. And it is 
a fact that the number of vessels at this city is what no 
one would believe without seeing them. The quantity of 
merchandise also which these vessels transport to Manzi 
and Cathay is something marvellous ; and then they return 
loaded with other merchandise, so that the amount of goods 
borne to and fro on those two rivers is quite astonishing. 

CONCERNING THE CITIES OF LINJU AND PIJU. 

On leaving the city of Sinjumatu you travel for eight days 
toward the south, always coming to great and rich towns 
and villages flourishing with trade and manufactures. At 
the end of those eight days you come to the city of Linju, 
in the province of the same name, of which it is the capital. 
It is a rich and noble city, and the men are good soldiers. 
Natheless they carry on great trade and manufactures. 
There is great abundance of game in both beasts and birds, 



194 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

and all the necessaries of life are in profusion. The place 
stands on the river of which I told you above. And they 
have here great numbers of vessels,, even greater than those 
of which I spoke before, and these transport a great amount 
of costly merchandise. 

So, quitting this province and city of Linju, you travel 
three days more towards the south, constantly rinding 
numbers of rich towns and villages. These still belong to 
Cathay and the Great Kaan, whose subjects they are. This 
is the finest country for game, whether in beasts or birds, 
that is anywhere to be found, and all the necessaries of life 
are in profusion. 

At the end of those three days you find the city of Piju, 
a great, rich, and noble city, with large trade and manu- 
factures, and a great production of silk. This city stands at 
the entrance to the great province of Manzi, and there 
reside at it a great number of merchants who despatch carts 
from this place loaded with great quantities of goods to the 
different towns of Manzi. The city brings in a great revenue 
to the Great Kaan. 

Cacanfu is now known as Hokianfu, in Pecheli. 
Chinangli is believed to be the modern Thsinanfu, 
now the chief city of the province of Shantung. 
The identity of Tadinfu is not so easily established. 
As this part of China is not often visited by European 
or American travellers, our knowledge of the country 
is derived from ancient accounts, such as Polo's book ; 
and as he did not in all cases see with his own eyes 
the countries which he describes, it is greatly to his 
credit that the few reports, which we have from 
those long-closed regions, correspond so closely with 



XVIII.] THE GREAT CANAL. 195 

the Venetian's accounts. Thus Thsinanfu, other- 
wise Chinangli, is still a city of some importance, 
with several fine temples, and buildings, which prove 
that it was the capital of the province. Silk is now 
a notable product of the province of Shantung, as it 
was when Marco Polo wrote his report concerning 
the resources of the country. The silkworm of the 
mulberry tree is here a native, and the " immense 
produce of silk" of which our traveller speaks has 
been going on, according to Chinese annals, for many 
thousands of years. 

The rebellion of Liytan is described in Chinese 
history, but the date, according to those records, was 
1262, and not 1273. The word " Sangon " means " a 
general of division," indicating the military rank of 
Liytan, whose revolt was quelled, as Marco Polo 
relates. The river, which, he tells us, was divided 
here at the city of Sinjumatu, is supposed to be a 
section of the Great Canal of China, the famous 
waterway which connects the lakes and rivers of 
China so ingeniously that it may be said to afford 
communication between Canton and Peking, a dis- 
tance of one thousand miles. This canal was 
formerly regarded as one of the wonders of the 
world ; and even now, after it has been damaged by 
wars, inundations, and accidents, it is a work of 
great importance and interest. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

BAYAN HUNDRED-EYES — THE POLO BROTHERS INTRODUCE 
WESTERN SIEGE ARTILLERY — THE YANG-TSE-KTANG AND ITS 
MONASTERIES — KINSAY (THE CITY OF HEAVEN) DESCRIBED. 

AFTER Marco had visited Yunnan, he made an 
excursion into Burmah and Bengal. Return- 
ing to Cathay, he describes some of the cities of 
the southern part of that empire, and tells us 

HOW THE GREAT KAAN CONQUERED THE PROVINCE OF 
MANZI. 

You must know that there was a king and sovereign lord 
of the great territory of Manzi who was styled Facfur, so 
great and puissant a prince that, for vastness of wealth and 
number of subjects and extent of dominion, there was 
hardly a greater in all the earth except the Great Kaan 
himself. But the people of this land were anything rather 
than warriors. 

In all his dominion there were no horses ; nor were the 
people ever inured to battle or arms, or military service of 
any kind. Yet the province of Manzi is very strong by 
nature, and all the cities are encompassed by sheets of 
water of great depth, and more than an arblast-shot in 
width ; so that the country never would have been lost, 
had the people been but soldiers. But that is just what 
they were not ; so lost it was. 

iq6 



Ch. XIX.] BARON BAYAN. 1 97 

Now it came to pass, in the year of Christ's incarnation, 
1268, that the Great Kaan, the same that now reigneth, 
despatched thither a Baron of his whose name was Bayan 
Chincsan, which is as much as to say " Bayan Hundred- 
Eyes." And you must know that the King of Manzi had 
found in his horoscope that he never should lose his 
kingdom except through a man that had an hundred eyes ; 
so he held himself assured in his position, for he could not 
believe that any man in existence could have an hundred 
eyes. There, however, he deluded himself, in his ignorance 
of the name of Bayan. 

This Bayan had an immense force of horse and foot 
entrusted to him by the Great Kaan, and with these he 
entered Manzi, and he had also a great number of boats to 
carry both horse and foot when need should be. And 
when he, with all his host, entered the territory of Manzi, 
and arrived at the city of Coiganju, he summoned the 
people thereof to surrender to the Great Kaan ; but this 
they flatly refused. On this Bayan went on to another 
city, with the same result, and then still went forward; 
acting thus because he was aware that the Great Kaan 
was despatching another great host to follow him up. 

What shall I say then ? He advanced to five cities in 
succession, but got possession of none of them ; for he did 
not wish to engage in besieging them, and they would not 
give themselves up. But when he came to the sixth city 
he took that by storm, and so with a second, and a third, 
and a fourth, until he had taken twelve cities in succession. 
And when he had taken all these, he advanced straight 
against the capital city of the kingdom, which was called 
Kinsay, and which was the residence of the King and 
Queen. 

And when the King beheld Bayan coming with all his 
host he was in great dismay, as one unused to see such 
sights. So he and a great company of his people got on 



198 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

board a thousand ships and fled to the islands of the Ocean 
Sea, whilst the Queen, who remained behind in the city, 
took all measures in her power for its defence, like a 
valiant lady. 

Now it came to pass that the Queen asked what was the 
name of the captain of the host, and they told her that 
it was Bayan Hundred-Eyes. So when she wist that he 
was styled Hundred-Eyes, she called to mind how their 
astrologers had foretold that a man of an hundred eyes 
should strip them of the kingdom. Wherefore she gave 
herself up to Bayan, and surrendered to him the whole 
kingdom and all the other cities and fortresses, so that no 
resistance was made. And in sooth this was a goodly 
conquest, for there was no realm on earth half so wealthy. 

Marco then proceeds to relate a curious circum- 
stance connected with the capture of the city of 
Saianfu, or Siangyangfu, as it is now called, one of 
the cities of Manzi, the province lying south of the 
Yellow River. He says: 

Now you must know that this city held out against the 
Great Kaan for three years after the rest of Manzi had 
surrendered. The Great Kaan's troops made incessant 
attempts to take it, but they could not succeed because of 
the great and deep waters that were round about it, so that 
they could approach from one side only, which was the 
north. And I tell you they never would have taken it, but 
for a circumstance that I am going to relate. 

You must know that when the Great Kaan's host had 
lain three years before the city without being able to take 
it, they were greatly chafed thereat. Then Messer Nicolo 
Polo and Messer Maffeo and Messer Marco said, " We 
could find you a way of forcing the city to surrender 



XIX.] SIEGE ARTILLERY. 1 99 

speedily " ; whereupon those of the army replied, that they 
would be right glad to know how that should be. All this 
talk took place in the presence of the Great Kaan. For 
messengers had been despatched from the camp to tell him 
that there was no taking the city by blockade, for it 
continually received supplies of victual from those sides 
which they were unable to invest ; and the Great Kaan 
had sent back word that take it they must, and find a way 
how. Then spoke up the Two Brothers and Messer Marco 
the son, and said : " Great Prince, we have with us among 
our followers men who are able to construct mangonels 
which shall cast such great stones that the garrison will 
never be able to stand them, but will surrender at once, as 
soon as the mangonels or trebuchets shall have shot into 
the town." 

The Kaan bade them with all his heart have such 
mangonels made as speedily as possible. Now Messer 
Nicolo and his brother and his son immediately caused 
timber to be brought, as much as they desired, and fit for 
the work in hand. And they had two men among their 
followers, a German "and a Nestorian Christian, who were 
masters of that business, and these they directed to con- 
struct two or three mangonels capable of casting stones 
of three hundred pounds' weight. Accordingly they made 
three fine mangonels, each of which cast stones of three 
hundred pounds' weight and more. And when they were 
complete and ready for use, the Emperor and the others 
were greatly pleased to see them, and caused several stones 
to be shot in their presence; whereat they marvelled 
greatly and greatly praised the work. And the Kaan 
ordered that the engines should be carried to his army 
which was at the leaguer of Saianfu. 

And when the engines were got to the camp they were 
forthwith set up, to the great admiration of the Tartars. 
And what shall I tell you ? When the engines were set up 



200 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

and put in gear, a stone was shot from each of them into 
the town. These took effect among the buildings, crashing 
and smashing through everything with huge din and 
commotion. And when the townspeople witnessed this 
new and strange visitation, they were so astonished and 
dismayed that they wist not what to do or say. They took 
counsel together, but no counsel could be suggested how to 
escape from these engines, for the thing seemed to them 
to be done by sorcery. They declared that they were all 
dead men if they yielded not, so they determined to 
surrender on such conditions as they could get. 

So the men of the city surrendered, and were received to 
terms; and this all came about through the exertions of 
Messer Nicolo and Messer MarTeo and Messer Marco; 
and it was no small matter. For this city and province is 
one of the best that the Great Kaan possesses, and brings 
him in great revenues. 

There is some uncertainty about the story, as here 
told by Marco, for history relates that the city was 
reduced at a period earlier than the time of the 
visit of the Polos ; but, possibly, some mistake has 
been made in the dates recorded by the Chinese 
historians. In any case, however, the employment 
of novel engines of war, by the advice of strangers 
from the West, was an actual fact ; all histories agree 
as to that. A mangonel was an engine of timber 
designed to throw great stones a long distance with 
terrific force, exactly as described by Marco. In 
those ancient times, before the invention of gun- 
powder, it was customary to use these, and also 



XIX,] A VAST RIVER. 201 

arblasts, or bows of steel or horn, so tough and 
strong that the string had to be drawn back to the 
trigger by a lever or a winch. Other contrivances 
for throwing bolts and stones were the catapult 
and the ballista. It is related that burning stuff to 
corrupt the air was sometimes thrown into a city 
by the besiegers who used these machines. The 
machines used by the Saracens were called trebu- 
chets — a name sometimes applied to the mangonel. 

The Yang-tse-Kiang river aroused the admiration 
of Marco, and he devotes much space to an account 
of its vastness and the volume of its commerce. 
The Chinese name for the stream is " Son of the 
Ocean," so great is its depth and width. Of it the 
traveller says : 

And I assure you this river flows so far and traverses so 
many countries and cities that in good sooth there pass and 
repass on its waters a great number of vessels, and more 
wealth and merchandise than on all the rivers and all the 
seas of Christendom put together ! It seems indeed more 
like a Sea than a River. Messer Marco Polo said that he 
once beheld at that city fifteen thousand vessels at one 
time. And you may judge, if this city, of no great size, has 
such a number, how many must there be altogether, 
considering that on the banks of this river there are more 
than sixteen provinces and more than two hundred great 
cities, besides towns and villages, all possessing vessels ? 

Messer Marco Polo aforesaid tells us that he heard from 
the officer employed to collect the Great Kaan's duties on 
this river that there passed upstream two hundred thousand 



202 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

vessels in the year, without counting those that passed 
down ! Indeed, as it has a course of such great length, 
and receives so many other navigable rivers, it is no wonder 
that the merchandise which is borne on it is of vast amount 
and value. And the article in largest quantity of all is 
salt, which is carried by this river and its branches to all 
the cities on their banks, and thence to the other cities in 
the interior. 

The vessels which ply on this river are decked. They 
have but one mast, but they are of great burthen, for I can 
assure you they carry, reckoning by our weight, from four 
thousand to twelve thousand cantars each. In going 
upstream they have to be hauled, for the current is so 
strong that they could not make head in any other manner. 
Now the tow-line, which is some three hundred paces in 
length, is made of nothing but cane. 'Tis in this way: 
they have those great canes of which I told you before 
that they are some fifteen paces in length ; these they take 
and split from end to end into many slender strips, and 
then they twist these strips together so as to make a rope 
of any length they please. And the ropes so made are 
stronger than if they were made of hemp. 

There are at many places on this river hills and rocky 
eminences on which the idol-monasteries and other edifices 
are built, and you find on its shores a constant succession 
of villages and inhabited places. 

There is very little exaggeration in this account. 
By twelve thousand cantars we should understand 
that the traveller refers to a weight equal to a little 
more than five hundred tons, which is a large cargo. 
The " idol-monasteries " of Marco Polo still stand on 
the rocky islets of the Yang-tse-Kiang ; they are 




AN ISLAND MONASTERY. 



XIX.] THE CITY OF HEAVEN. 203 

Buddhist monasteries, and are known as Orphan 
Rock, Golden Island, and Silver Island. And they 
are very picturesque features of the river scenery. 

At the beginning of this chapter Marco has told 
us about the conquest of the province of Manzi, with 
the surrender of Kinsay, its capital : he now describes 
Kinsay itself — the name means " The City of 
Heaven " — which, he says, was " beyond dispute the 
finest and the noblest in the world." 

First and foremost, the city is so great that it hath an 
hundred miles of compass. And there are in it twelve 
thousand bridges of stone, for the most part so lofty that a 
great fleet could pass beneath them. And let no man 
marvel that there are so many bridges, for you see that the 
whole city stands as it were in the water and surrounded 
by water, so that a great many bridges are required to 
give free passage about it. And though the bridges be so 
high, the approaches are so well contrived that carts and 
horses do cross them. 

There are in this city twelve guilds of the different crafts, 
and each guild has twelve thousand houses in the occupa- 
tion of its workmen. Each of these houses contains at 
least twelve men, whilst some contain twenty and some 
forty — not that these are all masters, but inclusive of the 
journeymen who work under the masters. And yet all 
these craftsmen had full occupation, for many other cities 
of the kingdom are supplied from this city with what they 
require. 

The number and wealth of the merchants, and the 
amount of goods that passed through their hands, was so 
enormous that no man could form a just estimate thereof. 
And I should have told you, with regard to those masters of 



204 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the different crafts who are at the head of such houses as 
I have mentioned, that neither they nor their wives ever 
touch a piece of work with their own hands, but live as 
nicely and delicately as if they were kings and queens. 
The wives indeed are most dainty and angelical creatures ! 
Moreover, it was an ordinance laid down by the King that 
every man should follow his father's business and no other, 
no matter if he possessed one hundred thousand bezants. 

Inside the city there is a lake which has a compass of 
some thirty miles : and all round it are erected beautiful 
palaces and mansions, of the richest and most exquisite 
structure that you can imagine, belonging to the nobles of 
the city. There are also on its shores many abbeys and 
churches of the Idolaters. In the middle of the lake are 
two islands, on each of which stands a rich, beautiful, and 
spacious edifice, furnished in such style as to seem fit for 
the palace of an emperor. And when any one of the 
citizens desired to hold a marriage feast, or to give any 
other entertainment, it used to be done at one of these 
palaces. And everything would be found there ready to 
order, such as silver plate, trenchers and dishes, napkins 
and tablecloths, and whatever else was needful. The King 
made this provision for the gratification of his people, and 
the place was open to every one who desired to give an 
entertainment. Sometimes there would be at these palaces 
an hundred different parties; some holding a banquet, 
otrrers celebrating a wedding ; and yet all would find good 
accommodation in the different apartments and pavilions, 
and that in so well-ordered a manner that one party was 
never in the way of another. 

The houses of the city are provided with lofty towers of 
stone, in which articles of value are stored for fear of fire ; 
for most of the houses themselves are of timber, and fires 
are very frequent in the city. 

Since the Great Kaan occupied the city, he has ordained 




GOLDEN ISLAND. 



XIX.] NIGHT-WATCHMEN. 205 

that each of the twelve thousand bridges should be pro- 
vided with a guard of ten men, in case of any disturbance, 
or of any being so rash as to plot treason or insurrection 
against him. Each guard is provided with a hollow instru- 
ment of wood and with a metal basin, and with a time- 
keeper to enable them to know the hour of the day 
or night. And so when one hour of the night is past, 
the sentry strikes one on the wooden instrument and 
one on the basin, so that the whole quarter of the city 
is made aware that one hour of the night is gone. At 
the second hour he gives two strokes, and so on, keeping 
always wide awake and on the lookout. In the morning 
again, from the sunrise, they begin to count anew, and 
strike one hour as they did in the night, and so on hour 
after hour. 

Part of the watch patrols the quarter, to see if any 
light or fire is burning after the lawful hours ; if they find 
any they mark the door, and in the morning the owner 
is summoned before the magistrates, and unless he can 
plead a good excuse he is punished. Also if they find 
any one going about the streets at unlawful hours they 
arrest him, and in the morning they bring him before the 
magistrates. If they see that any house has caught fire, 
they immediately beat upon that wooden instrument to 
give the alarm, and this brings together the watchmen 
from the other bridges to help to extinguish it, and to 
save the goods of the merchants or others, either by 
removing them to the towers above mentioned, or by 
putting them in boats and transporting them to the islands 
in the lake. For no citizen dare c leave his house at 
night, or to come near the fire ; only those who own the 
property, and those watchmen who flock to help, of whom 
there shall come one or two thousand at the least. 

Moreover, within the city there is an eminence on which 
stands a tower, and at the top of the tower is hung a 



206 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch« 

slab of wood. Whenever fire or any other alarm breaks 
out in the city, a man who stands there with a mallet in 
his hand beats upon the slab, making a noise that ia 
heard to a great distance. So when the blows upon this 
slab are heard, everybody is aware that fire has broken 
out, or that there is some other cause of alarm. 

You must know also that the city of Kinsay has some 
three hundred baths, the water of which is supplied by 
springs. They are hot baths, and the people take great 
delight in them, frequenting them several times a month, 
for they are very cleanly in their persons. They are the 
finest and largest baths in the world, large enough for 
one hundred persons to bathe together. 

The people of this country have a custom, that as soon 
as a child is born they write down the day and hour and 
the planet and sign under which its birth has taken place, 
so that every one among them knows the day of his birth. 
And when any one intends a journey he goes to the 
astrologers, and gives the particulars of his nativity, in 
order to learn whether he shall have good luck or no. 
Sometimes they will say No, and in that case the journey 
is put off till such day as the astrologer may recommend. 
These astrologers are very skilful at their business, and 
often their words come to pass, so the people have great 
faith in them. 

There is another thing I must tell you. It is the custom 
for every burgess of this city, and in fact for every description 
of person in it, to write over his door his own name, the 
name of his wife, and those of his children, his slaves, and 
all the inmates of his house, and also the number of animals 
that he keeps. And if any one dies in the house then the 
name of that person is erased, and if any child is born its 
name is added. So in this way the Sovereign. is able to 
know exactly the population of the city. 

There exists in this city the palace of the King who 



XIX.] A HUGE PALACE. 207 

fled, him who was Emperor of Manzi, and that is the 
greatest palace in the world, as I shall tell you more 
particularly. For you must know its demesne hath a 
compass of ten miles, all enclosed with lofty battlemented 
walls ; and inside the walls are the finest and most 
delectable gardens upon the earth, and filled too with the 
finest fruits. There are numerous fountains in it also, and 
lakes full of fish. In the middle is the palace itself, a great 
and splendid building. It contains twenty great and hand- 
some halls, one of which is more spacious than the rest, 
and affords room for a vast multitude to dine. It is all 
painted in gold, with many histories and representations 
of beasts and birds, of knights and dames, and many 
marvellous things. It forms a really magnificent spectacle, 
for over all the walls and all the ceiling you can see nothing 
but paintings in gold. And besides these halls the palace 
contains one thousand large and handsome chambers, all 
painted in gold and divers colours. 

The position of the city is such that it has on one side 
a lake of fresh and exquisitely clear water (already spoken 
of), and on the other a very large river. The waters of 
the latter fill a number of canals of all sizes which run 
through the different quarters of the city, carry away all 
impurities, and then enter the lake, whence they issue 
again and flow to the Ocean, thus producing a most 
excellent atmosphere. By means of these channels, as 
well as by the streets, you can go all about the city. But 
the streets and canals are so wide and spacious that carts 
on the one and boats on the other can readily pass to and 
fro, conveying necessary supplies to the inhabitants. 

At the opposite side the city is shut in by a channel* 
perhaps forty miles in length, very wide, and full of water 
derived from the river aforesaid, which was made by the 
ancient kings of the country, in order to relieve the river 
when flooding its banks. This serves also as a defence to 



208 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the city, and the earth dug from it has been thrown inwards, 
forming a kind of mound enclosing the city. 

In this part are the ten principal markets, though besides 
these there are a vast number of others in the different 
parts of the town. The former are all squares of half a 
mile to the side, and along their front passes the main 
street, which is forty paces in width, and runs straight from 
end to end of the city, crossing many bridges of easy and 
commodious approach. At every four miles of its length 
comes one of those great squares of two miles in compass. 
In each of the squares is held a market three days in the 
week, frequented by forty or fifty thousand persons, who 
bring thither for sale every possible necessary of life, so 
that there is always an ample supply of every kind of meat 
and game, and of ducks and geese an infinite quantity. 

Those markets make a daily display of every kind of 
vegetables and fruits ; and among the latter there are in 
particular certain pears of enormous size, weighing as much 
as ten pounds apiece, and the pulp of which is white and 
fragrant like a confection ; besides peaches in their season 
both yellow and white, of every delicate flavour. 

From the Ocean Sea also come daily supplies of fish in 
great quantity. Any one who should see the supply of 
fish in the market would suppose it impossible that such 
a quantity could ever be sold ; and yet in a few hours the 
whole shall be cleared away ; so great is the number of 
inhabitants who are accustomed to delicate living. Indeed, 
they eat fish and flesh at the same meal. 

To give you an example of the vast consumption in this 
city, let us take the article of pepper ; and that will enable 
you in some measure to estimate what must be the quantity 
of victual, such as meat, wine, groceries, which have to 
be provided for the general consumption. Now Messer 
Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan's officers 
of customs, that the quantity of pepper introduced daily for 



XIX.] PLEASURE-BARGES. 209 

consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to forty- 
three loads, each load being equal to two hundred and 
twenty-three pounds. 

The natives of the city are men of peaceful character, 
both from education and from the example of their kings, 
whose disposition was the same. They know nothing of 
handling arms, and keep none in their houses. You hear 
of no feuds or noisy quarrels or dissensions of any kind 
among them. Both in their commercial dealings and in 
their manufactures they are thoroughly honest and truthful, 
and there is such a degree of good-will and neighbourly 
attachment among both men and women that you would 
take the people who live in the same street to be all 
one family. 

They treat the foreigners who visit them for the sake of 
trade with great cordiality, and entertain them in the most 
winning manner, affording them every help and advice on 
their business. But on the other hand they hate to see 
soldiers, and not least those of the Great Kaan's garrisons, 
regarding them as the cause of their having lost their native 
kings and lords. 

On the lake of which we have spoken there are numbers 
of boats and barges of all sizes for parties of pleasure. 
These will hold ten, fifteen, twenty, or more persons, and 
are from fifteen to twenty paces in length, with flat bottoms 
and ample breadth of beam, so that they always keep their 
trim. Any one who desires to go a-pleasuring hires one 
of these barges, which are always to be found completely 
furnished with tables and chairs and all the other apparatus 
for a feast. The roof forms a level deck, on which the 
crew stand, and pole the boat along whithersoever may be 
desired, for the lake is not more than two paces in depth. 
The inside of this roof and the rest of the interior is covered 
with ornamental painting m gay colours, with windows all 
round that can be shut or opened, so that the party at table 

14 



2IO THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XIX. 

can enjoy all the beauty and variety of the prospects on 
both sides as they pass along. And truly a trip on this 
lake is a much more charming recreation than can be 
enjoyed on land. For on the one side lies the city in its 
entire length, so that the spectators in the barges, from the 
distance at which they stand, take in the whole prospect 
in its full beauty and grandeur, with its numberless palaces, 
temples, monasteries, and gardens, full of lofty trees, 
sloping to the shore. And the lake is never without a 
number of other such boats, laden with pleasure parties ; 
for it is the great delight of the citizens here, after they 
have disposed of the day's business, to pass the afternoon 
in enjoyment with the ladies of their families, either in 
these barges or in driving about the city in carriages. 

Of these latter we must also say something, for they afford 
one mode of recreation to the citizens in going about the 
town, as the boats afford another in going about the lake. 
In the main street of the city you meet an infinite succes- 
sion of these carriages passing to and fro. They are long 
covered vehicles, fitted with curtains and cushions, and 
affording room for six persons; and they are in constant 
request for ladies and gentlemen going on parties of 
pleasure. In these they drive to certain gardens, where 
they are entertained by the owners in pavilions erected on 
purpose, and there they divert themselves the livelong day, 
returning home in the evening in those same carriages. 



CHAPTER XX. 

AN EXCURSION TO CIPANGO, OR JAPAN — INGENIOUS SHIPS 
BUILT BY THE CHINESE — THE KHAN FAILS TO CONQUER 
JAPAN — THE RHINOCEROS — HISTORY OF SAGAMONI BORCAN, 
OR BUDDHA — RELIQUES OF ADAM. 

T T 7"E have already seen that the first accounts 
" * ever written of the countries lying to the south 
and east of China were the work of Marco Polo. But 
he did not personally visit all these regions ; and 
we must be careful not to forget this when reading 
his account of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, 
concerning which he wrote from the reports given 
him by men who had recently come from those parts. 
It should also be borne in mind that the people of 
Europe knew almost nothing of the remote parts of 
the world so described by Polo. Only vague and 
misty reports from India had come to Europe when 
Marco was writing his book. And considering that 
the information given us by the great Venetian was 
so derived, it must be admitted that it is all very 
full and very accurate. He prefaces his account of 
the " Isles of India " thus : 

Having finished our discourse concerning those countries 
wherewith our Book hath been occupied thus far, we are 

211 



212 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

now about to enter on the subject of India, and to tell 
you of all the wonders thereof. 

And first let us speak of the ships in which merchants 
go to and fro amongst the Isles of India. 

These ships, you must know, are of fir timber. They 
have but one deck, though each of them contains some 
fifty or sixty cabins, wherein the merchants abide greatly 
at their ease, every man having one to himself. The ship 
hath but one rudder, but it hath four masts ; and sometimes 
they have two additional masts, which they ship and unship 
at pleasure. 

Moreover, the larger of their vessels have some thirteen 
compartments or severances in the interior, made with 
planking strongly framed, in case mayhap the ship should 
spring a leak, either by running on a rock or by the blow 
of a hungry whale, as shall betide ofttimes ; for when the 
ship in her course by night sends a ripple back alongside 
of the whale, the creature seeing the foam fancies there is 
something to eat afloat, and makes a rush forward, whereby 
it often shall stave in some part of the ship. In such case 
the water that enters the leak flows to the bilge, which is 
always kept clear; and the mariners having ascertained 
where the damage is, empty the cargo from that com- 
partment into those adjoining, for the planking is so well 
fitted that the water cannot pass from one compartment to 
another. They then stop the leak and replace the lading. 

The fastenings are all of good iron nails and the sides are 
double, one plank laid over the other, and caulked outside 
and in. The planks are not pitched, for those people do 
not have any pitch, but they daub the sides with another 
matter, deemed by them far better than pitch ; it is this : 
You see they take some lime and some chopped hemp, and 
these they knead together with a certain wood-oil; and 
when the three are thoroughly amalgamated, they hold like 
any glue. And with this mixture they do pay their ships. 



XX.] CHINESE JUNKS. 213 

Each of their great ships requires at least two hundred 
mariners, some of them three hundred. They are indeed 
of great size, for one ship shall carry five or six thousand 
baskets of pepper, and they used formerly to be larger than 
they are now. And aboard these ships, you must know, 
when there is no wind they use sweeps, and these sweeps 
are so big that to pull them requires four mariners to each. 
Every great ship has certain large barks or tenders attached 
to it ; these are large enough to carry one thousand baskets 
of pepper, and carry fifty or sixty mariners apiece, some of 
them eighty or a hundred, and they are likewise moved by 
oars ; they assist the great ship by towing her, at such times 
as her sweeps are in use, or even when she is under sail, 
if the wind be somewhat on the beam — not if the wind be 
astern, for then the sails of the big ship would take the 
wind out of those of the tenders, and she would run them 
down. Each ship has two or three of these barks, but one 
is bigger than the others. There are also some ten small 
boats for the service of each great ship, to lay out the 
anchors, catch fish, bring supplies aboard, and the like. 
When the ship is under sail she carries these boats slung 
to her sides. And the large tenders have their boats in 
like manner. 

When the ship has been a year in work and they wish 
to repair her, they nail on a third plank over the first two, 
and caulk and pay it well ; and when another repair is 
wanted they nail on yet another plank, and so on year by 
year as it is required. Howbeit, they do this only for a 
certain number of years, and till there are six thicknesses 
of planking. When a ship has come to have six planks on 
her sides, one over the other, they take her no more on the 
high seas, but make use of her for coasting as long as she 
will last, and then they break her up. 

Now that I have told you about the ships which sail 
upon the Ocean Sea and among the Isles of India, let us 



214 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

proceed to speak of the various wonders of India ; but first 
and foremost I must tell you about a number of Islands 
that there are in that part of the Ocean Sea where we now 
are — I mean the Islands lying to the eastward. So let us 
begin with an Island which is called Chipangu. 

The ships of the Great Khan were better for naviga- 
tion in distant seas than those of Europe were in 
Marco's time. They were better than the vessels 
with which Columbus crossed the Atlantic and dis- 
covered the coast of America. But the Chinese have 
made no progress since that day. They build their 
junks, as they are called, just as they did one thousand 
years ago. Still, it is to be noted that the Mongols, 
or Chinese, invented and used water-tight compart- 
ments in ships ; and our modern ship-builders have 
copied the Chinese in this respect at least, even 
although the Chinese have not invented anything of 
importance to mariners since then. 

Now let us see what Marco has to say about Japan ; 
for that is the country which he names Chipangu, 
and which was variously known afterwards, in those 
days of spelling by sound, as Cipango, Zipangu, and 
Zumpango. 

Marco is describing to us the countries subject to 
the Great Khan ; and Cipango was interesting to him 
because Kublai Khan had lately sent an expedition 
against it. He says : 

Chipangu is an Island towards the east in the high seas, 



XX.] A GOLDEN PALACE. 21 5 

fifteen hundred miles distant from the Continent; and a 
very great Island it is. 

The people are white, civilised, and well-favoured. They 
are Idolaters, and are dependent on nobody. And I can 
tell you the quantity of gold they have is endless ; for 
they find it in their own Islands, and the King does not 
allow it to be exported. Moreover, few merchants visit 
this country because it is so far from the mainland, and 
thus it comes to pass that their gold is abundant beyond 
all measure. 

I will tell you a wonderful thing about the Palace of the 
Lord of that Island. You must know that he hath a great 
Palace which is entirely roofed with fine gold, just as our 
churches are roofed with lead, insomuch that it would 
scarcely be possible to estimate its value. Moreover, all 
the pavement of the Palace and the floors of the chambers 
are entirely of gold, in plates like slabs of stone, a good 
two fingers thick ; and the windows also are of gold ; so that 
altogether the richness of this Palace is past all bounds and 
all belief. 

They have also pearls in abundance, which are of a 
rose colour, but fine, big, and round, and quite as valuable 
as the white ones. In this Island some of the dead are 
buried, and others are burnt. When a body is burnt, they 
put one of these pearls in the mouth, for such is their 
custom. They have also quantities of other precious 
stones. 

Cublay, the Grand Kaan who now reigneth, having 
heard much of the immense wealth that was in this Island, 
formed a plan to get possession of it. For this purpose 
he sent two of his Barons with a great navy, and a great 
force of horse and foot. These Barons were able and 
valiant men, one of them called Abacan and the other 
Vonsainchin, and they weighed with all their company 
from the ports of Zayton and Kinsay, and put out to sea. 



2l6 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

They sailed until they reached the Island aforesaid, and 
there they landed, and occupied the open country and the 
villages, but did not succeed in getting possession of any 
city or castle. 

Marco Polo next proceeds to explain why the army 
of the Great Khan did not succeed in conquering the 
kingdom of Cipango. He says, that there was a 
bitter jealousy existing between the two Barons in 
command of the expedition, " so that one would do 
nothing to help the other." Consequently, when a 
storm arose, the fleet was scattered and a great many 
of the vessels were lost. About thirty thousand men 
took refuge on an uninhabited island, and when fair 
weather came again the Emperor of Cipango sent a 
fleet to take these fugitives. By some stratagem, 
according to Marco Polo's account, the invaders got 
possession of the ships of the enemy and set sail for 
Cipango ; and advancing upon the chief city of the 
empire under the banners of the absent forces of 
the Emperor, they gained possession of the capital, 
and were subsequently besieged there by the forces of 
the rightful government of the country. After hold- 
ing out for seven months, the invaders surrendered 
on condition that their lives should be spared and 
that they should never leave the island. 

Among the other remarkable things told of Cipango, 
by those who gave this information to Marco Polo, 
was, that eight of the garrison of one of the fortifi- 



XX. j A STRANGE TALISMAN. 217 

cations taken by the Mongols possessed a charm 
which prevented their captors from cutting off their 
heads, as had been attempted. This charm consisted 
of certain stones inserted under the skin of their flesh, 
" and the virtue of these stones was such that those 
who wore them could never perish by steel. So when 
the Barons heard of this they ordered the men to be 
beaten to death with clubs. And after their death the 
stones were extracted from the bodies of all, and were 
highly prized." In Marco's time, and indeed up to 
a very recent period, charms of this sort were common 
among partly civilised nations. 

It was this part of Marco's story that was greatly 
disbelieved in Europe, when he returned to tell of the 
wonders he had seen in the Far East. Possibly, his 
account of the marvellous adventures of the Khan's 
generals in Cipango threw doubt on his whole story. 
The expedition was a failure, and it is likely that each 
of the leaders attempted to put the blame upon the 
other : the result was a long and curious tale of 
adventure, which, although you may some day like to 
read it for yourselves, need not be told here. 

But the marvels of the fabled island of Cipango 
took strong hold of the European imagination after 
a while. As we have already said, Columbus expected 
to reach India and Cathay by sailing westward, and 
one of the objects of his search was the rich island of 
Cipango. When he happened on those islands which 



2l8 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

he called mistakenly the West Indies, he was afraid 
that he had missed Cipango, and he asked the natives 
where the land of gold (Cipango) was situated ; when 
they pointed to the south, he made up his mind that 
he had sailed by the northern point of Cipango and 
had fallen upon one of the Indian islands. Later on, 
in 1498, after the discovery of America, John 
Cabot and his son Sebastian sailed on an expe- 
dition into the west, and they too were searching for 
the wealthy island of Cipango, which of course they 
never found. 

Marco gives glowing accounts of the great maritime 
cities of Kinsay and Zayton, on the eastern and south- 
eastern coast of China. Hangchau is the modern 
name of Kinsay, which, in Marco's time, was a 
port of the very first importance. It is the capital 
of Chinkiang. Zayton, which lies south of Hangchau, 
and is now known as Chinchau, or Tsinchau, was 
the port from which the Khan's fleets sailed for the 
capture of Japan ; and from that port also sailed 
Marco Polo and his father and uncle on their final 
return to Europe, when they took with them the 
bride of the Persian Khan. The city was famous, 
among other things, for a peculiar, rich, and glossy 
silk, which was called satin, from a change of the 
name, Zayton, or Zaituni, where it was made and 
exported. In the same way, calico takes its name 
from the Indian city Calicut, and cambric from 



XX.] COCHIN CHINA. 219 

Cambrai. Kinsay and Zayton were also objects of 
Columbus' search on his first and second voyages. 

Another region in the eastern archipelago noted 
by Marco is Cochin China, which he calls Chamba. 
Cochin China was conquered by the Great Khan, 
and Marco visited the country in 1285, he says. 
At that time, according to Marco Polo, the king 
had a great many wives ; and he also had, " between 
sons and daughters, three hundred and twenty-six 
children, of whom at least one hundred and fifty 
were men fit to carry arms." Of the productions of 
the country he writes : 

There are very great numbers of elephants in this 
kingdom, and they have lignaloes in great abundance. 
They have also extensive forests of the wood called Bomis, 
which is jet black, and of which chessmen and pen-cases 
are made. 

Elephants are still very numerous in Cochin China ; 
and ebony, the jet-black wood of which Marco speaks, 
is also brought from there. We must understand 
that lignaloes is the antique name for aloes-wood— 
a vegetable product from which is prepared the drug 
known in medicine as aloes. 

The other countries mentioned by Marco are Java, 
of which he gives a very meagre account ; Sumatra, 
which he calls " Java the Less " ; and divers other 
islands, which are difficult for us now to identify on 



220 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

the modern map. Concerning the strange things he 
saw in Sumatra, Marco says : 

This also is an independent kingdom, and the people 
have a language of their own ; but they are just like beasts, 
without laws or religion. They call themselves subjects of 
the Great Kaan, but they pay him no tribute ; indeed, they 
are so far away that his men could not go thither. Still, all 
these Islanders declare themselves to be his subjects, and 
sometimes they send him curiosities as presents. There 
are wild elephants in the country, and numerous unicorns, 
which are very nearly as big. They have hair like that of 
a buffalo, feet like those of an elephant, and a horn in the 
middle of the forehead, which is black and very thick. 
They do no mischief, however, with the horn, but with the 
tongue alone; for this is covered all over with long and 
strong prickles, and when savage with any one they crush 
him under their knees and then rasp him with their tongue. 
The head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry it 
ever bent toward the ground. They delight much to abide 
in mire and mud. 'Tis a passing ugly beast to look upon. 
There are also monkeys here in great numbers and of 
sundry kinds, and goshawks as black as crows. These are 
very large birds and capital for fowling. 

I may tell you, moreover, that when people bring home 
pygmies which they allege to come from India, 'tis all a lie 
and a cheat. For those little men, as they call them, are 
manufactured on this Island, and I will tell you how. You 
see there is on the Island a kind of monkey which is very 
small, and has a face just like a man's. They take these, 
and pluck out all the hair except the hair of the beard and 
on the breast, and then they dry them and stuff them and 
daub them with saffron and other things until they look 
like men. But you see it is all a cheat ; for nowhere in 




.s%. '%K- . 



THE THREE ASIATIC RHINOCEROSES: INDIAN (UPPER), SUMATRAN 
(LOWER), JAVANESE (MIDDLE). 



XX.] A WICKED CUSTOM. 221 

India nor anywhere else in the world were there ever men 
seen so small as these pretended pygmies. 

Marco confounds the rhinoceros with the fabulous 
unicorn, as many other writers of the olden time have 
done. The unicorn, which is represented as " fighting 
for the crown " with the lion, was something like 
the horse, with a single horn in his forehead. There 
was no such creature ; but the rhinoceros, then very 
little known, was mistaken for the unicorn. The 
Sumatra rhinoceros, however, usually has two horns ; 
it is the Indian beast of this family that has but one 
horn. If Marco Polo had with his own eyes seen 
the so-called unicorn of Sumatra, he doubtless would 
have been very much puzzled. 

Marco then makes us shudder by relating a 
horrible practice, in which the people of Dagroian 
indulged (their island was close to Sumatra) : 

I will tell you a wicked custom of theirs. When one of 
them is ill they send for their sorcerers, and put the 
question to them, whether the sick man shall recover of his 
sickness or no. If they say that he will recover, then they 
let him alone till he gets better. But if the sorcerers fore- 
tell that the sick man is to die, the friends send for certain 
judges of theirs to put to death him who has thus been 
condemned by the sorcerers to die. These men come, and 
lay so many clothes upon the sick man's mouth that they 
suffocate him. And when he is dead they have him cooked, 
and gather together all the dead man's kin, and eat him. 
And when they have eaten him, they collect his bones and 



222 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

put them in fine chests, and carry them away, and place 
them in caverns among the mountains where no beast nor 
other creature can get at them. And you must know also 
that if they take prisoner a man of another country, and he 
cannot pay a ranson in coin, they kill him and eat him 
straightway. It is a very evil custom and a parlous. 

When Marco gets to Ceylon (which he calls Seilan), 
he narrates the history of Sagamoni Borcan, or 
Buddha, and of the beginning of idolatry. 

You must know that in the Island of Seilan there is an 
exceeding high mountain; it rises right up so steep and 
precipitous that no one could ascend it, were it not that 
they have taken and fixed to it several great and massive 
iron chains, so disposed that, by help of these, men are able 
to mount to the top. And I tell you they say that on this 
mountain is the sepulchre of Adam our first parent; at 
least that is what the Saracens say. But the Idolaters say 
that it is the sepulchre of Sagamoni Borcan, before whose 
time there were no idols. They hold him to have been 
the best of men, a great saint in fact, according to their 
fashion, and the first in whose name idols were made. 

He was the son, as their story goes, of a great and 
wealthy King. And he was of such an holy temper that 
he would never listen to any worldly talk, nor would he 
consent to be king. And when the father saw that his son 
would not be king, nor yet take any part in affairs, he took 
it sorely to heart. And first he tried to tempt him with 
great promises, offering to crown him king, and to surrender 
all authority into his hands. The son, however, would 
none of his offers ; so the father was in great trouble, and 
all the more that he had no other son but him, to whom he 
might bequeath the kingdom at his own death. So, after 



XX.] THE STORY OF BUDDHA. 223 

taking thought on the matter, the King caused a great 
palace to be built, and placed his son therein, and caused him 
to be waited on there by a number of maidens, the most 
beautiful that could anywhere be found. And he ordered 
them to divert themselves with the Prince, and to sing and 
dance before him, so as to draw his heart towards worldly 
enjoyments. But 'twas all of no avail. And I assure you 
he was so staid a youth that he had never gone out of the 
palace, and thus he had never seen a dead man, nor any 
one who was not hale and sound; for the father never 
allowed any man that was aged or infirm to come into his 
presence. It came to pass, however, one day that the young 
gentleman took a ride, and by the roadside he beheld a 
dead man. The sight dismayed him greatly, as he never 
had seen such a sight before. Incontinently he demanded 
of those who were with him what thing that was, and they 
told him it was a dead man. "How, then," quoth the 
King's son, " do all men die ? " " Yea, forsooth," said they. 
Whereupon the young gentleman said never a word, but 
rode on right pensively. And after he had ridden a good 
way he fell in with a very aged man who could no longer 
walk, and had not a tooth in his head, having lost all 
because of his great age. And when the King's son beheld 
this old man, he asked what that might mean, and where- 
fore the man could not walk. Those who were with him 
replied that it was through old age the man could walk no 
longer and had lost all his teeth. And so when the King's 
son had thus learned about the dead man and about the 
aged man, he turned back to his palace and said to himself 
that he would abide no longer in this evil world, but would go 
in search of Him Who dieth not and Who had created him. 
So what did he one night but take his departure from the 
palace privily, and betake himself to certain lofty and pathless 
mountains. And there he did abide, leading a life of great 
hardship and sanctity, and keeping great abstinence, just as 



224 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. |Ch. 

if he had been a Christian. And when he died, they found 
his body and brought it to his father. And when the 
father saw dead before him that son whom he loved better 
than himself, he was near going distraught with sorrow. 
And he caused an image in the similitude of his son to be 
wrought in gold and precious stones, and caused all his 
people to adore it. And they all declared him to be a 
god ; and so they still say. 

They tell, moreover, that he hath died fourscore and four 
times. The first time he died as a man, and came to life 
again as an ox ; and then he died as an ox and came to 
life again as a horse, and so on until he had died fourscore 
and four times ; and every time he became some kind of 
animal. But when he died the eighty-fourth time they say 
he became a god. And they do hold him for the greatest 
of all their gods. And they tell that the aforesaid image of 
him was the first idol that the Idolaters ever had; and 
from that have originated all the other idols. And this 
befell in the Island of Seilan in India. 

The Idolaters come thither on pilgrimage from very long 
distances and with great devotion ; and they maintain fhat 
the monument on the mountain is that of the King's son, 
according to the story I have been telling you; and that 
the teeth, and the hair, and the dish that are there, were 
those of the same King's son, whose name was Sagamoni 
Borcan, or Sagamoni the Saint. But the Saracens also 
come thither on pilgrimage in great numbers, and they say 
that it is the sepulchre of Adam our first father, and that the 
teeth, and the hair, and the dish were those of Adam. 

Whose they were in truth God knoweth; howbeit, 
according to the Holy Scripture of our Church, the sepulchre 
of Adam is not in that part of the world. 

Now it befell that the Great Kaan heard how on that 
mountain there was the sepulchre of our first father Adam, 
and that some of his hair and of his teeth, and the dish from 



XX.] RELIQUES OF ADAM ? 225 

which he used to eat, were still preserved there. So he 
thought he would get hold of them somehow or another, 
and despatched a great embassy for the purpose, in the 
year of Christ 1284. The ambassadors, with a great com- 
pany, travelled on by sea and by land until they arrived 
at the Island of Seilan, and presented themselves before 
the King. And they were so urgent with him that they 
succeeded in getting two of the grinder teeth, which were 
passing great and thick ; and they also got some of the hair, 
and the dish from which that personage used to eat, which 
is of a very beautiful green porphyry. And when the Great 
Kaan's ambassadors had attained the object for which they 
had come they were greatly rejoiced, and returned to their 
Lord. And when they drew near to the great city of 
Cambaluc, where the Great Kaan was staying, they sent 
him word that they had brought back that for which he had 
sent them. On learning this, the Great Kaan was passing 
glad, and ordered all the ecclesiastics and others to go forth 
to meet these reliques, which he was led to believe were 
those of Adam. 

And why should I make a long story of it ? In sooth, 
the whole population of Cambaluc went forth to meet those 
reliques, and the eccelesiastics took them over and carried 
them to the Great Kaan, who received them with great joy 
and reverence. And they find it written in their Scriptures 
that the virtue of that dish is such that if food for one man 
be put therein it shall become enough for five men ; and 
the Great Kaan averred that he had proved the thing and 
found that it was really true. 



15 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE WONDERS OF INDIA — PEARL-FISHERS AND THEIR PERILS — 
A STORY LIKE ONE IN "THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAIN- 
MENTS" — HUNTING DIAMONDS WITH EAGLES. 

MARCO'S description of the pearl-fishery of 
Ceylon is not only very interesting, but also 
truthful. The general features of the pearl-fishery 
of to-day are the same as in his time. The region, 
to which Marco gives the name of " Maabar," 
is probably that which we now know as the Coro- 
mandel coast. The point which he calls " Bettelar " is 
undoubtedly Patlam, on the coast of Ceylon. The 
shark-charmers, of whom Marco speaks, are still in 
existence. They pretend to be able to charm the 
sharks so that the latter will not attack the divers. 
The secret of this charm is usually bequeathed from 
father to son, and never goes out of the family ; and 
it is believed by everybody, including foreigners, that 
these shark-charmers do really keep away the sharks. 
Marco says : 

When you leave the Island of Seilan and sail westward 
about sixty miles, you come to the great Province of 

226 



Ch. XXL] PEARL-FISHERS. 227 

Maabar, which is styled India the Greater ; it is the 
best of all the Indies, and is on the mainland. 

In this Province there are five kings, who are own 
brothers. I will tell you about each in turn. The Province 
is the finest and noblest in the world. 

At this end of the Province reigns one of those five Royal 
Brothers, who is a crowned King, and his name is Sonder 
Bandi Davar. In this kingdom they find very fine and 
great pearls ; and I will tell you how they are got. 

The sea here forms a gulf between the Island of Seilan 
and the mainland. And all round this gulf the water has a 
depth of no more than ten or twelve fathoms, and in some 
places no more than two fathoms. The pearl-fishers take 
their vessels, great and small, and proceed into this gulf, 
where they stop from the beginning of April till the 
middle of May. They go first to a place called 
Bettelar, and then go sixty miles into the gulf. Here 
they cast anchor and shift from their large vessels into small 
boats. The merchants divide into various companies, and 
each of these must engage a number of men on wages, hiring 
them for April and half of May. Of all the produce they 
have first to pay the King, as his royalty, the tenth part. 
And they must also pay those men who charm the great 
fishes, to prevent them from injuring the divers whilst 
engaged in seeking pearls under water, one twentieth part 
of all that they take, These fish-charmers are termed 
Abraiaman ; and their charm holds good for that day only, 
for at night they dissolve the charm so that the fishes can 
work mischief at their will. These Abraiaman know also 
how to charm beasts and birds and every living thing. 
When the men have got into the small boats they jump into 
the water and dive to the bottom, which may be at a depth 
of from four to twelve fathoms, and there they remain as 
long as they are able. And there they find the shells that 
contain the pearls, and these they put' into a net bag tied 



228 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

round the waist, and mount up to the surface with them, 
and then dive anew. When they can't hold their breath 
any longer they come up again, and after a little down they 
go once more, and so they go on all day. These shells are 
in fashion like oysters or sea-hoods. And in these shells 
are found pearls, great and small, of every kind, sticking in 
the flesh of the shell-fish. 

In this manner pearls are fished in great quantities, for 
thence in fact come the pearls which are spread all over the 
world. And the King of that State hath a very great receipt 
and treasure from his dues upon those pearls. 

Now we come to a marvellous tale of diamonds, 
and the way they are obtained, which sounds so 
much like a chapter out of "The Arabian Nights' 
Entertainments " that we must copy it entire. Marco 
says that, after one leaves Maabar and travels about 
one thousand miles in a northerly direction, one 
comes to the kingdom of MutfiH. No such kingdom 
now exists, and it is supposed that by this was meant 
Motupalle, in the Madras Presidency. It was in 
Mutfili that the Golconda diamonds were found ; 
and this is the tale told to Marco of the finding 
of them : 

It is in this kingdom that diamonds are got ; and I will 
tell you how. There are certain lofty mountains in those 
parts ; and when the winter rains fall, which are very heavy, 
the waters come roaring down the mountains in great 
torrents. When the rains are over, and the waters from the 
mountains have ceased to flow, they search the beds of the 
torrents and find plenty of diamonds. In summer also there 



XXL] HOW TO RAISE DIAMONDS. 229 

are plenty to be found in the mountains, but the heat of 
the sun is so great that it is scarcely possible to go thither, 
nor is there then a drop of water to be found. Moreover, 
in those mountains great serpents are rife to a marvellous 
degree, besides other vermin, and this owing to the great 
heat. The serpents are also the most venomous in exist- 
ence, insomuch that any one going to that region runs 
fearful peril ; for many have been destroyed by these evil 
reptiles. 

Now among these mountains there are certain great and 
deep valleys, to the bottom of which there is no access. 
Wherefore the men who go in search of the diamonds take 
with them pieces of flesh, as lean as they can get, and these 
they cast into the bottom of the valley. Now there are 
numbers of white eagles that haunt those mountains and 
feed upon the serpents. When the eagles see the meat 
thrown down they pounce upon it, and carry it up to some 
rocky hill-top where they begin to rend it. But there are 
men on the watch, and as soon as they see that the eagles 
have settled they raise a loud shouting to drive them away. 
And when the eagles are thus frightened away the men 
recover the pieces of meat, and find them full of diamonds 
which have stuck to the meat down in the bottom. For the 
abundance of diamonds down there in the depths of the 
valleys is astonishing, but nobody can get down ; and if one 
could, it would be only to be incontinently devoured by the 
serpents which are so rife there. 

There is also another way of getting the diamonds. The 
people go to the nests of those white eagles, of which there 
are many, and find plenty of diamonds which the birds have 
swallowed in devouring the meat that was cast into the 
valleys. And when the eagles themselves are taken, 
diamonds are found in their stomachs. 

So now I have told you three different ways in which 
these stones are found. No other country but this kingdom 



230 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XXL 

of Mutfili produces them, but there they are found both abun- 
dantly and of large size. Those that are brought to our part 
of the world are only the refuse, as it were, of the finer and 
larger stones. For the flower of the diamonds and other 
large gems, as well as the largest pearls, are all carried to 
the Great Kaan and other Kings and Princes of those 
regions ; in truth, they possess all the great treasures of the 
world. 

The story of the eagles and the diamonds is one 
of the oldest in literature. You will find it in the 
adventures of Sindbad the Sailor, in "The Arabian 
Nights' Entertainments " ; and as it is very unlikely 
that Marco Polo ever saw that book, which had not 
been translated in his time, we may assume that his 
story and that of Sindbad had a common origin among 
the Persians ; for it appears in Persian, Chinese, 
Arabian, Jewish, and other Oriental legends. In 
Herodotus, too, we find a similar narrative, only 
the substance got in this indirect way is cinnamon ; 
and the Arabs procured it by a kindred device. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A PEEP INTO AFRICA — THE MYTHICAL ROC AND ITS MIGHTY 
EGGS — THE EXPLOITS OF KING CAIDU'S DAUGHTER — CON- 
CLUSION. 

' | ^HE eastern coast of Africa was an unknown 
4- region in Marco Polo's day ; and when he had 
travelled so far to the southern end of Asia that he 
began to get glimpses of Africa, he could not believe 
that he heard reports from the eastern side of the 
African Continent, of which he already knew some- 
thing, as it formed the southern border of the 
Mediterranean Sea. So he speaks of Madagascar 
(which he calls Madeigascar) and Zanzibar (which he 
calls Zanghibar) as though they were parts of India. 
If we remember that Marco was the first writer, 
European or Asiatic, to mention Madagascar by that 
name, and almost the first to give the world any 
information concerning that unknown land, we may 
overlook the fact that his geography is sometimes 
mixed. But his descriptions of the people and the 
animals of Eastern Africa are pretty accurate, as thus : 

They are all black, and go naked, with only a little 
covering for decency. Their hair is as black as pepper, and 

231 



232 



THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. 



[Ch. 



so frizzly that even with water you can scarcely straighten it. 
And their mouths are so large, their noses so turned up, 
their lips so thick, their eyes so big and blood-shot, that they 
look like very devils ; they are, in fact, so hideously ugly tha 
the world has nothing to show more horrible. 

There are also lions that are black and quite different from 
ours. And their sheep are all exactly alike in colour — the 




body all white and the head black ; no other kind of sheep 
is found there, you may rest assured. They have also many 
giraffes. This is a beautiful creature, and I must give you a 
description of it. Its body is short and somewhat sloped 
to the rear, for its hind legs are short, whilst the fore legs 
and the neck are both very long, and thus its head stands 
about three paces from the ground. The head is small, 
and the animal is not at all mischievous. Its colour is 
all red and white in round spots, and it is really a beau- 
tiful object. 



XXII.] THE MYTHICAL ROC. 233 

The women of this Island are the ugliest in the world, 
with their great mouths and big eyes and thick noses. The 
people live on rice and flesh and milk and dates ; and they 
make wine of dates and of rice and of good spices and sugar. 
There is a great deal of trade, and many merchants and 
vessels go thither. 

To Abyssinia, which he calls Abash, Marco devotes 
a few pages, where we find that branding in the face 
with a hot iron forms part of the rite of baptism 
among the Abyssinian Christians : 

The Christians in this country bear three marks on the 
face ; one from the forehead to the middle of the nose, and 
one on either cheek. These marks are made with a hot 
iron, and form part of their baptism ; for after that they 
have been baptised with water, these three marks are made, 
partly as a token of gentility, and partly as the completion 
of their baptism. There are also Jews in the country, and 
these bear two marks, one on either cheek ; and the Saracens 
have but one, to wit, on the forehead, extending half-way 
down the nose. 

It was somewhere in Eastern Africa that Marco 
heard of the existence of that marvellous and gigantic 
bird, the Roc. Stories like this, no doubt, served to 
shake the faith of the Venetians in the truth of the 
tales of the Polos when they returned to their native 
land. Marco gives us the tale here with some " grains 
of salt," as you will see : 

You must know that this Island lies so far south that 
ships cannot go further south or visit other Islands in that 



234 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

direction, except this one and that other of which we have 
to tell you, called Zanghibar. This is because the sea-current 
runs so strong towards the south that the ships which should 
attempt it never would get back again. Indeed, the ships 
of Maabar which visit this Island of Madeigascar, and that 
other of Zanghibar, arrive thither with marvellous speed, for 
great as the distance is they accomplish it in twenty days, 
whilst the return voyage takes them more than three months. 
This is because of the strong current running south, which 
continues with such singular force and in the same direction 
at all seasons. 

'Tis said that in those other Islands to the south, which 
the ships are unable to visit because this strong current 
prevents their return, is found the bird Gryphon, which 
appears there at certain seasons. The description given of 
it is, however, entirely different from what our stories and 
pictures make it. For persons who had been there and had 
seen it told Messer Marco Polo that it was for all the world 
like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size ; so big, in 
fact, that its wings covered an extent of thirty paces, and 
its quills were twelve paces long, and thick in proportion. 
And it is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons 
and carry him high into the air, and drop him so that he is 
smashed to pieces ; having so killed him, the bird gryphon 
swoops down upon him and eats him at leisure. The 
people of those isles call the bird Rue, and it has no other 
name. So I wot not if this be the real gryphon, or if there 
be another manner of bird as great. But this I can tell 
you for certain, that they are not half lion and half bird, as 
our stories do relate ; but enormous as they be, they are 
fashioned just like an eagle. 

The Great Kaan sent to those parts to inquire about 
these curious matters, and the story was told by those who 
went thither. He also sent to procure the release of an 
envoy of his who had been despatched thither, and had 



XXII.] A COLOSSAL FEATHER. 235 

been detained ; so both those envoys had many wonderful 
things to tell the Great Kaan about those strange islands, 
and about the birds I have just mentioned. They brought 
(as I heard) to the Great Kaan a feather of the said Rue, 
which was stated to measure ninety spans, whilst the quill 
part was two palms in circumference — a marvellous object ! 
The Great Kaan was delighted with it, and gave great 
presents to those who brought it. They also brought two 
boar's tusks, which weighed more than fourteen pounds 
a piece ; and you may gather how big the boar must have 
been that had teeth like that ! They related, indeed, that 
there were some of these boars as big as a great buffalo. 
There are also numbers of giraffes and wild asses ; and, in 
fact, a marvellous number of wild beasts of strange aspect. 

The measurements, which were common in Marco 
Polo's time, are not much in use nowadays ; but if 
the reader wants to figure out the dimensions of 
Marco's big bird, a pace may be reckoned as equal 
to two and a half feet, a span to nine inches, and 
a palm to four inches. 

The fable of the Rukh, or Roc, is one of the oldest 
in the world — as old as that other which relates the 
adventures of the men who got their diamonds from 
the valley of the serpents in such curious fashion ; 
and we find it in the story of Sindbad the Sailor. 
But scientific research has proved that some such 
colossal bird did exist in ancient times. There have 
been found in Madagascar the remains of an immense 
bird, and also a fossil egg of the monster. This egg, 
which is in the British Museum, is thirteen and a 



236 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

quarter inches long and six and a half inches in 
diameter ; its contents would be equal to two and 
a half gallons. If the bird were constructed on the 
plan of the eagle, for instance, its egg y comparing it 
with that of the eagle, would require a bird so big 
that its quills would be ten feet long and its wings 
would spread over thirty feet. 

In New Zealand have been found the bones of a 
great bird called the Moa by the natives ; this was a 
lazy and stupid creature, incapable of flying, and not 
unlike the ostrich in structure and habit. The Moa 
(Dinornis, as it is named by the scientists) was over 
ten feet high. Not long since, there were found, along- 
side of the remains of a Moa, the bones of a still 
bigger bird which resembled the eagle, and was 
evidently a bird of prey twice as big as the Moa. 
If this creature lived on the Moa as its prey, why 
may not some other gigantic bird, like the Roc, have 
preyed on the great bird whose egg and bones were 
found in Madagascar? 

The next succeeding chapters of Marco Polo's book 
are taken up chiefly with accounts of the wars of 
Kublai Khan, beginning with the battle fought 
between him and his mutinous nephew, the King of 
Caidu. With these we need not concern ourselves, 
though the exploits of Caidu's valiant daughter, 
described in Marco's quaint language, are worth 
notice: 



XXII.] KING CAIDU'S DAUGHTER. 237 

Now you must know that King Caidu had a daughter 
whose name was Aijaruc, which in the Tartar is as much 
as to say "The Bright Moon." This damsel was very 
beautiful, but also so strong and brave that in all her father's 
realm there was no man who could outdo her in feats of 
strength. In all trials she showed greater strength than any 
man of them. 

Her father often desired to give her in marriage, but she 
would none of it. She vowed she would never marry till 
she found a man who could vanquish her in every trial ; 
him she would wed, and none else. And when her father 
saw how resolute she was, he gave a formal consent in their 
fashion that she should marry whom she list and when she 
list. The lady was so tall and muscular, so stout and 
shapely withal, that she was almost like a giantess. She had 
distributed her challenges over all the kingdoms, declaring 
that whosoever should come to try a fall with her, it should 
be on these conditions, viz. that if she vanquished him 
she should win from him one hundred horses, and if he 
vanquished her he should win her to wife. Hence many a 
noble youth had come to try his strength against her, but 
she beat them all ; and in this way she had won more than 
ten thousand horses. 

Now it came to pass in the year of Christ 1280, that there 
presented himself a noble young gallant, the son of a rich 
and puissant king, a man of prowess and valiance and great 
strength of body, who had heard word of the damsel's 
challenge, and came to match himself against her in the 
hope of vanquishing her and winning her to wife. That he 
greatly desired, for the young lady was passing fair. He too 
was young and handsome, fearless and strong in every way, 
insomuch that not a man in all his father's realm could vie 
with him. So he came full confidently, and brought with 
him one thousand horses to be forfeited if she should 
vanquish him. Thus might she rain one thousand horses at 



238 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. 

a single stroke ! But the young gallant had such confidence 
in his own strength that he counted securely to win her. 

Now ye must know that King Caidu and the Queen his 
wife, the mother of the stout damsel, did privily beseech 
their daughter to let herself be vanquished. For they 
greatly desired this prince for their daughter, seeing what a 
noble youth he was, and the son of a great king. But the 
damsel answered that never would she let herself be van- 
quished if she could help it ; if, indeed, he should get the 
better of her, then she would gladly be his wife, according 
to the wager, but not otherwise. 

So a day was named for a great gathering at the Palace 
of King Caidu, and the King and Queen were there. And 
when all the company were assembled, for great numbers 
flocked to see the match, the damsel first came forth in a 
strait jerkin of sammet ; and then came forth the young 
bachelor in a jerkin of sendal ; and a winsome sight they 
were to see. When both had taken post in the middle of 
the hall, they grappled each other by the arms, and wrestled 
this way and that, but for a long time neither could get the 
better of the other. At last, however, it so befell that the 
damsel threw him right valiantly on the palace pavement. 
And when he found himself thus thrown, and her standing 
over him, great indeed was his shame and discomfiture. 
He gat him up straightway, and without more ado departed 
with all his company, and returned to his father full of 
shame and vexation, that he who had never yet found a man 
that could stand before him should have been thus worsted 
by a girl ! And his one thousand horses he left behind him. 

As to King Caidu and his wife, they were greatly annoyed, 
as I can tell you ; for if they had had their will, this youth 
should have won their daughter. 

And ye must know that after this her father never went 
on a campaign but she went with him. And gladly he took 
her, for not a knight in all his train played such feats of 



XXII.] RUSTICIANO'S EPILOGUE. 239 

arms as she did. Sometimes she would quit her father's 
side, and make a dash at the host of the enemy, and seize 
some man thereout, as deftly as a hawk pounces on a bird, 
and carry him to her father ; and this she did many a time. 

Then Marco skips to the far North, and tells us 
of the wandering Tatars of that region, and of the 
manners and customs of Siberia. 

His description of the far North made no such 
profound impression on the mind of Europe as did 
his account of the countries in the southern and 
eastern parts of Asia, and h need not detain us. 

Now we have come to the end of Marco Polo's 
book, and cannot better close our extracts from it 
than with the epilogue, or concluding address, which 
Rusticiano, or Ramusio, or some of the earliest 
copyists, put down here as a finish to the whole : 

CONCLUSION. 

And now ye have heard all that we can tell you about 
the Tartars and the Saracens and their customs, and like- 
wise about the other countries of the world, as far as our 
researches and information extend. Only we have said 
nothing whatever about the Greater Sea and the provinces 
that lie round it, although we know it thoroughly. But it 
seems to me a needless and useless task to speak about 
places which are visited by people every day. For there 
are so many who sail all about that sea constantly, Venetians 
and Genoese and Pisans, and many others, that everybody 
knows all about it, and that is the reason that I pass it over 
and say nothing of it. 



240 THE STORY OF MARCO POLO. [Ch. XXII. 

Of the manner in which we took our departure from the 
Court of the Great Kaan you have heard at the beginning 
of the Book, in that chapter where we told you of all the 
vexation and trouble that Messer Maffeo and Messer Nicolo 
and Messer Marco had about getting the Great Kaan's leave 
to go ; and in the same chapter is related the lucky chance 
that led to our departure. And you may be sure that but 
for that lucky chance we should never have got away in 
spite of all our trouble, and never have got back to our 
country again. But I believe it was God's pleasure that we 
should get back, in order that people might learn about the 
things that the world contains. For according to what has 
been said in the introduction at the beginning of the Book, 
there never was a man, be he Christian or Saracen, or 
Tartar or Heathen, who ever travelled over so much of the 
world as did that noble and illustrious citizen of the City 
of Venice, Messer Marco, the son of Messer Nicolo Polo. 




INDEX 



Abraiaman (shark-charmers), 

227 
Abyssinia (Abash), 233 
Acre, 10 

Adam, reliques of, 224 
Africa, 231 
Alau, 33, 57 
Alexander the Great, 30 ; his 

horse, Bucephalus, 61 
Alligators, 171 
Aloadin (the Old Man of the 

Mountain), 55 ; his Assassins, 

56 
Aloes, 219 

Anin, province of, 186 
Ararat, Mount, 28 
Arghun, Khan of Persia, 16 
Armenia, 27 
Artillery, siege, 199 
Arzinga, city of, 27 
Asbestos, 79 
Assassins, the, 56 

Bacsi, or conjurers, 103 
Badakshan (Badashan), the gems 
of, 60 ; horses of, 61 



241 



Bagdad, 33 ; the miserly Caliph 

of, 34 
Baiburt, 28 
Bamboos, 106, 169 
Bam-i-Duniah (" Roof of the 

World "), 68 
Barons, Kublai Khan's, 133, 137, 

151 
Basra (Bastra), 33 
Baudas (Bagdad), 33 
Bayan Hundred-Eyes, 197 
Bengal, 196 
Bettelar (Patlam), 226 
Bezant, the, 150 
Bolor, 68 
Bucephalus, 61 
Buddha, history of, 222 
Buddhism, 65 
Burmah, 196 

Cacanfu (Hokianfu), city of, 

194 
Caidu, King, 113; his valiant 

daughter, 237 
Caliph of Bagdad, the miserly, 

34 

16 



242 



INDEX. 



Camadi, city of, 47 
Cambaluc (Khan-palik), 129, 161 
Canal, the Great, 159 
Cannabis Indica, 58 
Caramoran (the Yellow River), 

166 
Caraonas (Hazaras), the, 48, 

52 
Carpini, Friar Piano, 2, 21 
Cashmere, 63 ; conjurers of, 64 
Casvin (Kazwin), city of, 44, 49 
Caugigu (Laos), province of, 

185 
Ceylon, 222 

Chamba (Cochin China), 219 
Chandu (Xandu) palace, 12, ioo, 

105 
Changlu, city of, 191 
Cheetahs, 140 
Chinangli (Thsinanfu), 194 
Chinchau, 218 
Chingintalas, 77 

Chipangu, Cipango (Japan), 214 
Christ, and the Three Magi, 40 
Coal, 156 

Cobbler, the one-eyed, 37 
Cochin China, 219 
Corganju city, 197 
Coleridge, S. T. (" In Xanadu "), 

105 
Coloman, province of, 186 
Columbus, Christopher, 22 
Column, the miraculous, 70 
Conjurers, of Cashmere, 64 ; 

weather-, 103 ; some of their 

tricks, 107 
Cooper, T. T., 171 
Coromandel coast, the, 226 
Crawford, F. Marion, 52 



Cremation, 187, 215 

Crocodiles, 171 

Cuiju (Kweichau), province of, 

187 
Curzola, the battle of, 18 

Dagroian island, 221 
Derbend, or Derbent, 30 
Devil-doctors, 175 
Diamonds, how to get, 228 
Dinornis (Moa), 236 
Divining-rods, 85 

Elephants, used in battle, 178 ; 

in Cochin China, 219 
Exorcists, 184 

Facfur, King of Manzi, 196 
Fata Morgana, yy 
Fire-brigade, 205 
Fire-worshippers, the, 40 
Francolin, 47, 5 1 
Fungul (Phungan), 187 

Game laws, 145 

Genoa, Marco a prisoner at, 19 

Georgiania, kingdom of, 31 

Ghelle, or Gil, 31 

Gobi, or Shamo," Desert of, 73 

Gog and Magog, 98 

Golconda diamonds, 228 

Golden Island, 203 

Golden King, the, 164 

Golden Palace, a, 215 

Great Wall of China, the, 98 

Gregory X„ Pope, 10 

Gryphon, the, 234 

Guilds, 203 

Hangchau, 203, 218 



INDEX. 



243 



Hanway, Jonas, introduces um- 
brella into England, 1 23 
Hassan-ben-Sabah, 58 
Hazaras, the, 52 
Hermenia (Armenia), 27 
Hoang-Ho river, 166 
Hokianfu, 190, 194 
Hormos, city of, 53 
Horses, Persian, 50 
Hue, Abbe, 96 
Huts, portable, 87 

Ibn Batuta, 108 
Idol-monasteries, 202 
Istanit (Ispahan), 44, 49 

Jahangir, Emperor, his Memoirs 

quoted, no 
Japan, 214 
Java, 219 
Jenghiz Khan, 7, 81 ; his death, 

84 
Jerboa ("Pharaoh's rat"), 87, 

91 
Jerusalem, n 
Junks, 212 

Kaikhatu, Khan of Persia, 17 

Kaiminfu, 12 

Kaipingfu (City of Peace), 12, 

100 
Kazwin, 44, 49 
Kemenfu, 12 
Kenjanfu (Singanfu), 167 
Kerman, kingdom of, 45 
Keshican, Kublai's Barons, 137 
Keshimur (Cashmere), 63 
Kettledrums, 116, 119 
Khan-palik (Cambaluc), 129 



King, the Golden, 164 

Kinsay (Hangchau), " the City of 
Heaven," 203 

Kisi, city of, 33 

Kublai Khan, 7 ; his reception 
of, and instructions to, the 
Polos, 8, 9, 12; his titles, 9, 
in ; the sensible Marco, 13 ; 
sends a mission to Persia, 17 ; 
his palaces, 100, 126 ; his 
mares, 102; his court jugglers, 
108 ; how he goes to war, in; 
defeats and slays Nayan, 115; 
his naccaras, 116; how he 
rewards his officers, 120; his 
Tablets of Authority, 121 ; his 
portrait, 124; his war-harness, 
125 ; his evergreens, 127 ; how 
he dines, 133 ; when he drinks, 
135 ; liberal to his Barons, 136 j 
a mighty hunter, 139; his 
hawks and eagles, 140 ; the 
luxury of sport, 143 ; his hunt- 
ing encampment, 144; his 
paper money, 147 ; his system 
of government — the Twelve 
Barons, 151 ; his postmen, 152 ; 
his stores of corn, and charity, 
158, 159; how he passes the 
time, 161 ; defeats King of 
Mien and Bangala, 177 ; quells 
Liytan's rebellion, 192 ; con- 
quers Manzi, 196 ; adopts siege 
artillery, 199 ; fails to conquer 
Japan, 215; obtains the 
" reliques " of Adam, 225 ; and 
a roc's feather, 235 

Kuhistan, 44, 49 
I Kukachin, the Lady, 16 



244 



INDEX. 



Kurdistan, 44, 49 
Kweichau, 187 

Laos, 189 

Layas, city of, 27 

Levant, the, 6, 30 

Lignalpes, 219 

Linju, 193 

Livre tournois, 50 

Liytan, rebellion of, 192 

Longfellow, poem of " Kambalu" 

quoted, 35 
Lop, or Lob, Desert of, 73 
Lor (Luristan), 44, 49 
Lost Property Officer, 142 
Luristan, 44, 49 

Maabar, 226 

Madagascar (Madeigascar), 231 

Magi, the Three, 39 

Mangalai, Prince, 167 

Mangonels, 199 

Manzi, province of, 196 

Matwanlin, the historian, 75 

Melton, Edward, 109 

Mien and Bangala, King of, 

177 
Mien, city of, 181 
Milk, condensed, 89 
Miracles, stories of, 36, 70 
Moa (Dinomis), 236 
Monasteries, idol-, 202 
Mongols, the, 7 
Motupalle (Mutfili), 228 
Mount Ararat, 28 
Musk-deer, 94, 96 

Naccara, the, 116, 119 
Nayan, 112 



Nestorians, 168 
Noah's Ark, 28 
Nogodar, 48 

Old Man of the Mountain, 55 ; 

his Assassins, 56 
Ondanique, 46, 51, 77 
Orphan Rock, 203 
Ovis Poli, 68 

Paipurth (Baiburt), 28 

Pamir Steppes, the, 66 

Paper money, 147 

Parrot, Professor, 29 

Parsees, 42 

Pashai, province of, 62 

Patlam, 226 

Pearl-fishing, 227 

Peking, 129 

Persia, 17, 38 ; the eight king- 
doms of, 44 

Petroleum, 28 

Pharaoh's rats, 87 

Pheasant, the Chinese, 95 

Phungan, 190 

Piju, 194 

Poison-wind, the, 54 

Polo, Maffeo, 2, 6, 199, 240 

Polo, Marco, 2, 4 ; Kublai's wel- 
come to, 12 ; a linguist and 
ambassador, 13 ; an explorer, 
15 ; despatched to Persia, 17 ; 
a prisoner at Genoa, 18 ; his 
amanuensis, 19 ; a truth-teller, 
23 ; discourses of Armenia, 
Georgiania, Bagdad and its 
miserly Caliph, 26-35 ; of the 
miracle worked by the One- 
eyed Cobbler, 36 ; of the Three 



INDEX. 



245 



Magi, 39; of the eight king- 
doms of Persia, 44 ; describes 
the zebu, and the fat-tailed 
sheep, 47 ; the Caraonas, 48 ; 
the city of Hormos and its 
inhabitants, 53 ; the Old Man 
of the Mountain and his Assas- 
sins, 55 ; the mountains of 
salt, 59 ; the Badakshan rubies 
and horses, 61 ; Cashmere and 
its conjurers, 64 ; the Ovis Poli 
on the Roof of the World, 67 ; 
his story of the miraculous 
column, 70 ; his tale of the 
Lop Desert, 73 ; ridicules the 
salamander, JJ ; his account 
of the origin of the Mongol 
Empire under Jenghiz Khan, 
81 ; of the Tatar portable huts, 
87 ; of condensed milk, 89 ; 
Tatar justice, 92 ; the grunting 
oxen, 94 ; refers to Gog and 
Magog, 98 ; the Khan's cane- 
palace, and his mares, 101, 
102 ; weather-conjurers, 103 ; 
on Kublai's puissance, in ; 
Nayan's revolt, defeat, and 
death, 112; the Tablets of 
Authority, 121 ; where the 
Khan's war-harness is stored, 
125 ; the greatest palace that 
ever was, 126; the Khan's 
evergreen hill, 1 27 ; Cambaluc, 
or Peking, 130 ; the fashion of 
the Khan's dinner-table, 133 ; 
the Khan's liberality to his 
Barons, 137 ; a mighty hunter, 
139 ; a luxurious sportsman, 
143 ; on Kublai's finances and 



government, 147 ; the Twelve 
Barons, 1515 a postal service, 
152 ; the Khan's charity, 159 ; 
on the Chinese views of the 
soul, 160; how the Khan 
passes his time, 161 ; a pretty 
passage between the Golden 
King and Prester John, 164; 
the Yellow River, 166 ; quan- 
tities of canes, 169; his report 
of Yunnan and its crocodiles, 
171 ; of Zardandan and its 
devil-doctors, 174 ; the Khan 
v. King of Mien, 177 ; on the 
city of Mien and its two 
towers, 181; in Southern China 
and Laos, 185 ; two cities and 
a rebel, 191 ; Bayan Hundred- 
Eyes, 197 ; introduces siege 
artillery, 199 ; the Yang-tse- 
Kiang river, 201 ; his account 
of the city of Hormos, 203 ; 
in Japan, 21 1 ; a golden palace, 
215; Cochin China and its 
elephants, 219 ; strange things 
in Sumatra, 220 ; Buddha's 
history, 222 ; Adam's " re- 
liques," 224 ; the pearl-fishers 
of Ceylon, 227 ; how to raise 
diamonds, 229 ; his peep into 
Africa, 231; the roc, 233; 
the exploits of King Caidu's 
daughter, 237 

Polo, Nicolo, 2, 6, 199 

Ponent, the, 30 

Postmen, running, 152 

Presbyter, or Prester, John, 80; 
outwits the Golden King, 164 

Pygmies, manufacture of, 220 



246 



INDEX. 



Ramusio, John Baptist, 3, 9, 

239 
Rashiduddin, 182 
Reobarles, province of, 47 
Rhinoceros, 220 
Roc, or ruc, 233 
Roof of the World, the, 67 
Rubruquis, Friar William, 2, 21, 

91 

Rusticiano, Marco's amanuensis, 
19, 24, 239 

Sagamoni Borcan (Buddha), 

222 
Saggio, the, 121 
Saianfu, 198 

St. Leonard's Convent, 32 
Salamander, the, 77 
Salt, mountains of, 158; used 

for money, 173 
Samarcand, 70 
Saracens, the, 70 
Score and tally, 183 
Seilan (Ceylon), 222 
Serazy (Shiraz), 44, 49 
Shamo, or Gobi, Desert of, 

73 
Shark-charmers, 226 
Shawankars, 44, 49 
Sheep, fat-tailed, 47, 51; East 

African, 232 
Shells, used for money, 173 
Ship-building, 212 
Ships, stitched, 53 
Shiraz, 44, 49 
Shulistan, 44, 49 
Siangyangfu, 198 
Sigatay (Kublai's brother), 70 
Silver Island, 203 



Singanfu, 168 

Siningfu (Sinju), 94 

Sinjumatu, 193 

Soncara (Shawankars), 44, 49 

Sumatra, 219 

Suolstan (Shulistan), 44, 49 

Swift, Dean, 72 

Tadinfu, 191 

Taican, and its salt mountains, 

58 

Talisman, a strange, 217 

Tanduc, battle of, 83 

Tatars, their manners and cus- 
toms, 86-93 

Tattooing, 174 

Tebaldo of Piacenza (afterwards 
Pope Gregory X.), 10 

Thsinanfu, 190, 194 

Tibet, 94, 169 

Trebuchets, 199 

Tsinchau, 17, 218 

Tunocain (Kuhistan), 44, 49 

Turkestan, 70 

Umbrellas, 123 

Venice, i, 3, 18 
Vochan, battle of, 177 
Vokhan, 67 

Wall, the Great, 98 
War-drums, 116, 119 
Weather-conjurers, 103, 107 
Wood, Captain John, 68 

Xandu palace, 100, 105 

Yaks, or grunting oxen, 95 



INDEX. 



247 



Yang-tse-Kiang river, 201 
Yasdi, city of, 45 
Yellow River, the, 166 
Yule, Colonei ("Travels of 
Marco Polo "), 21, 50, 106, 156 
Yungchangfu, 182 
Yunnan, 171 



Zanzibar (Zanghibar), 231 

Zardandan, 174 

Zayton (Chinchau, or Tsinchau), 

17, 218 , 

Zebu, the, 47, 51 
Zipangu, Zumpango (Japan), 214 
Zurficar, JJ 



/ 



LRBHr"26 



